Ken Kratz

Kenneth "Ken" R. Kratz (born 1960/61) is a former American lawyer who served as district attorney of Calumet County, Wisconsin.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater in 1983 and Marquette Law School in 1985, Kratz was admitted to the bar and licensed to practice law in Wisconsin in 1985.

He worked in the La Crosse, Wisconsin City Attorney's Office as an assistant city attorney from 1985 to 1987.

He served as an assistant district attorney in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, from 1987 to 1992, and said his specialties were drug-related cases and child sex abuse cases.

Kratz was appointed district attorney of Calumet County (replacing Donald Poppy, who became a judge) by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson in 1992; he was the only applicant for the post.

Kratz chaired the Wisconsin Victim Rights Council in 1993 as well as its successor, the Wisconsin Crime Victims Rights Board, from 1998 to 2010.

He served as president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association in 1996.

In 1997, Kratz prosecuted a prominent child abuse case in which parents allegedly locked their daughter in a cage.

The mother pleaded guilty.

Kratz also allegedly put his hand up the skirt of another domestic violence victim in 1999, when he was prosecuting her husband.

In addition, the initial complainant, in a later lawsuit, charged that Kratz told another domestic abuse victim 10 years prior that "he could have a dominatrix from Chicago with whom he was familiar train the victim/witness to be more submissive to his advances."

Manitowoc County had recused its officials because it was being sued by Avery for wrongful conviction, following his exoneration in 2003 of a 1985 conviction for which he had served 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Kratz was appointed special prosecutor and headed the investigation and prosecutions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in neighboring Manitowoc County for the murder of Teresa Halbach on October 31, 2005.

Kratz had also met a woman when he prosecuted her for shoplifting in 2006.

He gained attention for trying a highly publicized homicide case, State of Wisconsin v. Steven Avery (2007), in which Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were both convicted.

Kratz gained convictions of both defendants in trials in 2007.

Avery was sentenced to life without parole.

Dassey, then 17, was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no parole before he reached the age of 56.

In 2008, Kratz explored a run for the Republican nomination in Wisconsin's 6th congressional district.

In October 2009, Kratz was prosecuting a domestic violence case against the ex-boyfriend of a 26-year-old victim, who was a college student and part-time preschool teacher.

She filed a police report in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, reporting that after interviewing her in his office, Kratz had sent her 30 sexually coercive text messages over the span of three days.

She said that she felt that he was trying to coerce her into a sexual relationship, fearing if she refused him he would dismiss the case against her ex-boyfriend.

Kratz wrote her, among other things, "Are you the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA ... the riskier the better?"

And: "I would not expect you to be the other woman. I would want you to be so hot and treat me so well that you'd be THE woman! R U that good?"

He wrote her as well: "I'm serious! I'm the atty. I have the $350,000 house. I have the 6-figure career. You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize!"

Kratz did not deny sending her the text messages.

The report was referred to the state's Division of Criminal Investigation.

During the DCI investigation, a dozen or so more women came forward accusing Kratz of harassing and intimidating them.

One woman complained that Kratz had invited her to a date at a slain woman's autopsy "provided I act as his girlfriend and would wear high heels and a skirt," and another woman said after meeting her in his office he texted her asking how she would impress him in bed.

At the time, Kratz was serving as chairman of the Wisconsin Crime Victims' Rights Board, a quasi-judicial agency that he helped create that can reprimand judges, prosecutors, and police officers who mistreat crime victims.

According to an investigatory report, she said that in 2009 he called her "out of the blue," said he was getting a divorce, came to her apartment, and told her in a threatening manner that he "knew everything about her" and "if she did not listen to him, he could get her 'jammed up.'" "While Kratz was at [the woman's] apartment, [he] said he ties women up, they listen to him, and he is in control. [The woman] stated that Kratz wanted her to engage in bondage with him. She said he instructed her to give him a 'blow job,' and she did."

Kratz then left $75 on her kitchen counter, and subsequently called and texted her 50 or 60 times, leaving angry messages when she ignored him.

Kratz resigned from his office in October 2010 after a sexting scandal; he had sent sexual texts to a 26-year-old domestic violence victim whose ex-boyfriend he was prosecuting.

Several other women whom he met as district attorney also complained to authorities that he had approached them with inappropriate sexual behavior.

In 2013, he settled a civil suit by the first woman who had brought the complaint against him.

Kratz is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He later lived in Onalaska, Wisconsin.

As a result, in 2014, Kratz's law license was suspended for four months by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The trial served as the subject of Making a Murderer (2015), a 10-episode documentary series produced by Netflix.

Dassey's conviction was provisionally overturned in August 2016, subject to appellate review.