Yesterday, co-founder of Dragon*Con Edward J Kramer pled guilty to counts of child molestation, charges that he had successfully managed to legally avoid facing for well over a decade. As technically a first time offender, he was sentenced to twenty years, but will only spend five years under confinement. And as he has already served 26 months on remand, he will serve the rest of those five years under house arrest, and then remain on probation for the remaining fifteen years.
The battle to convict Kramer has been a long and hard one, and he famously used the profits from the Dragon*Con show to fund his legal defence.
His legal defence stated that he pled guilty without actually admitting guilt, known as an Alford plea, to avoid a lengthy trial which they argue he would not be able to survive medically. Though the extend of his illnesses have often been debated,. But as a result of his guilty plea to three counts of child molestation, he had three counts of aggravated child molestation removed.
However, if one term of the nine-condition agreement is breached, he could return to jail for up to sixty years, an effective life sentence given Kramer is now 52.
Under the court’s nine-condition agreement, if the 52-year-old Kramer violates even a single term he could land back in prison for up to 60 years, which includes paying the victims $100,000 each, leaving house arrest of meeting anyone ages under 16. The district attourney believes that Kramer will be unable to stick to these terms and will be incarcarated at a later date.
Any word on when those few remaining badges for SDCC will be going up for sale??
Comic-Con is shaking things up for 2014 badge sales. No more 4-day badges—only single day badges will be sold, although you can consolidate a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday badge into a 4-day badge on site. Additionally, you can only attend Preview Night on Wednesday if you purchase a badge for all four days Thursday-Sunday.
Ah. Okay. Now I get it.
Well, hopefully, they also modify the process to make it easier to choose or prioritize days.
[UPDATE 1] And there seems to be some misinformation regarding the increase in cost for Preview Night. Last year, a 4-day with Preview Night badge cost $175, a premium of $25 over the standard 4-day badge. So with CCI charging $35 for Preview Night this year, that’s only a $10 increase from last year’s cost.
Next, regarding the policy changes for pre-registration (what is that? Check out our FAQ), buyers will be able to buy badges for two additional individuals who qualify for pre-registration (i.e., attended last year), granted those individuals have all signed up for Member IDs, and the person purchasing the badges has the Member IDs and last names of everyone they are purchasing for.
This is my first time entering pre-reg. When I enter the link, I'll be able to choose all days without having to lineup again, right?
That's the intent with the registration enhancements they are implementing. They are still testing them now, hence the delays.
If you make it to the front of the line in the EPIC Registration waiting room, you will begin your badge registration session by entering your Member ID and last name. You will also select the number of people you are purchasing badges for (up to 3 maximum, yourself included). On the following page, you will see the badge grid above. Here you will enter the Member ID and last name of each individual you are purchasing for, and then ?validate? their information. Once a member is validated (ie: they are eligible to purchase), you will select the desired and available badge categories for each person by using the simple checkboxes.
For those who want to attend the entire show, simply check the Preview Night box, and all other badges (Thursday through Sunday) will be automatically checked for you. Just one click to get your 4-day with Preview Night option! However, if you do not want to attend Preview Night, you can select the days you wish to attend as individual items. Keep in mind that you may not purchase Preview Night as a stand alone option. If any one of the four single day badges are sold out (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday), the Preview Night checkbox will not be available for purchase.
Working closely with the team at EPIC Registration, Comic-Con has decided to introduce a randomized waiting room. This decision was based on the number of suggestions we received and countless hours trying to find the fairest way to implement changes to what has been a problem plagued process. During 2014 badge preregistration, prospective attendees will be given a time frame in which they can log in to the EPIC waiting room prior to the badge sale. Once the badge sale begins, everyone who is inside the waiting room will be randomly assigned to a registration session. Your assigned registration session is not tied to the time you entered the waiting room. There is no advantage in arriving early.