Corvette-in-river guy 'didn't realize I was doing anything wrong'

UPDATE: John Kramer was arraigned early Thursday and his bail was set at $15,000 on two counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of harassment and violating a court order, according to court records. He has not yet posted the 10 percent – or $1,500 – he needs to be released. Kramer's next court date is set for Dec. 18.

JOHN KRAMER wants you to know he's not a bad person.

Two days after he sent his speeding red Corvette plunging into the Delaware River in a spat with his estranged wife, Kramer turned himself in to police yesterday to face charges that he'd violated a restraining order, harassed his estranged wife and endangered the police divers who had to fish the car out of the river.

Before Detective John Hughes and Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum led him into Northeast Detectives to be arraigned yesterday, he told the Daily News that he never meant for anyone to see him sink the 'Vette. He only did it, he said, because he wasn't on his medication for bipolar disorder.

"I didn't even realize I was doing anything wrong," said Kramer, who wore a Lito Sheppard Eagles jersey and a backward baseball cap on his way into the police district. "I wasn't on my medication at the time. My system was not balanced. I didn't feel balanced."

A passer-by saw the capsizing Corvette and alerted police, ignoring Kramer's pleas not to alert authorities.

"The witness did what you should do: He called police. The witness was 100 percent right," Rosenbaum said. "Taking a car and dumping it in a river, risking the lives of the police officers who have to go in after it, is going to get you in trouble."

Bail was set at $1,500, which Kramer posted, according to court records.

The Corvette incident on Monday night capped a caustic three-year divorce dispute that worsened in June when a son died of a drug overdose inside the family's home on Lansing Street in Mayfair.

Kramer, a retired karate instructor who still sometimes teaches neighborhood kids in his back yard for free, said he hopes that a judge will understand how his life's troubles landed him in police trouble.

"This stuff is not my fault," he said. "Life is too hard for me anymore. Nothing ever comes easy for me."

He added: "My wife will make me out to be a horrible, horrible person. But I am not. I am very nice. I am very good."

Blog: phillyconfidential.com