State won't represent sexting ex-DA
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Justice refused Wednesday to represent a disgraced former district attorney in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a domestic abuse victim who says he sent her sexually suggestive text messages.
Gov. Jim Doyle also declined to appoint an outside attorney at taxpayers' expense to represent Ken Kratz, the former Calumet County district attorney who resigned in October amid an uproar over the text messages and claims of misconduct by at least four other women.
The state isn't required to foot the bill for Kratz's attorney because he was not acting within the scope of his employment when he committed the acts that are the subject of the lawsuit, Doyle's attorney Susan Crawford said in a letter sent to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.
Kratz's attorney Robert Bellin said in an e-mail that he was shocked by Doyle's decision not to appoint an attorney.
If Kratz wasn't acting as a governmental agent, then he couldn't have violated the woman's civil rights as is alleged in the lawsuit and it therefore must be dismissed, Bellin said.
Doyle did ask the Justice Department to defend the decision not to appoint Kratz. Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh had no comment.
Kratz sent Stephanie Van Groll 30 text messages in three days last year while prosecuting her ex-boyfriend on charges of beating and nearly choking her to death.
A week after he resigned, Van Groll filed a federal lawsuit in Milwaukee claiming he violated her constitutional rights by sending her the text messages.
Her attorney, Michael Fox, said the action by Doyle and Van Hollen wasn't unusual.
"Kratz is politically radioactive (and) the politicians are all donning their haz mat suits," Fox said in an e-mail, adding that the case was being "kicked down the road."
Fox said earlier that he had expected Van Hollen's office to decline to represent Kratz given that the office previously investigated him for criminal misconduct related to the text messages and forced him to resign from the Crime Victims' Rights Board.
The Justice Department said in its letter to Doyle that it couldn't represent Kratz because it had a conflict of interest.
Fox also said the refusal was understandable given that Kratz has accused Van Hollen's office of leaking the information and trying to smear his name.
"I'm the least surprised person in the room that the attorney general's office would decline direct representation of Kratz," Fox said.
Kratz, 50, sent the 26-year-old Van Groll 30 text messages in three days last year while prosecuting her ex-boyfriend on charges of beating and nearly choking her to death. In the text messages to Van Groll, Kratz asked whether she was "the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA" and called her a "tall, young hot nymph."
Van Groll alleges in the lawsuit that Kratz's behavior was sexually harassing, discriminating and part of a pattern dating back years. It claims her right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution was violated and seeks unspecified damages.
Other women who have accused Kratz of inappropriate behavior include a law student who says he sought a relationship after agreeing to help her seek a pardon for a drug conviction and a woman who says Kratz invited her on a date to a victim's autopsy.