Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/27/prosecutor_racy_text_messages/
Prosecutor resigns over sexting spree to crime victim
'Hot, young nymph' wasn't amused
Posted in Security, 27th September 2010 20:31 GMT
A Wisconsin prosecutor who faced forced removal from office for sending sexually charged text messages to crime victims and suspects will resign instead.
Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz had previously refused to quit following revelations he sent one crime victim 30 racy text messages over three days that among other things referred to her as a “tall, young, hot nymph.” The sexting spree began just minutes after he met then 25-year-old Stephanie Van Groll last year to discuss charges filed against her boyfriend for nearly strangling her to death.
In other messages he asked if she was “the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA,” and questioned whether her low self-esteem was to blame for her lack of interest in him. Kratz is 50 years old.
After the messages became public, at least four other women came forward to say they received similar communications from Kratz. An Oklahoma law student, for example, told the Associated Press last week that she too received harassing texts in 2008 after Kratz supported her request for a pardon on an old drug charge.
Kratz, a Republican who earns $105,000 a year and has been Calumet County's top prosecutor since 1992, had previously refused to step down and claimed calls for him to resign were politically motivated. His announcement on Monday that he planned to resign came as Wisconsin's governor began the process of forcibly removing Kratz from office.®