A former North Carolina State University student is being held without bond in the Wake County Detention Center after police charged him with sexually assaulting two people in separate incidents back in 2019, one of which prosecutors initially declined to prosecute. Michael Adam Kranzburg, now 27, was taken into custody in Georgia on Oct. 13 and extradited to North Carolina on Nov. 3. He faces charges including first-degree kidnapping, assault by strangulation, second-degree forcible sex offense, and sexual battery.
According to CBS 17, Kranzburg is charged with second-degree forced sexual offense and sexual battery in connection with the February 2019 incident, while the December 2019 case carries the more serious charges of second-degree forced sexual offense, first-degree kidnapping, assault by strangulation, and sexual battery. The two cases involved two different adult victims on separate dates, according to arrest warrants cited by WRAL.
A Case That Prosecutors Once Declined to Pursue
NC State campus police began investigating a reported sexual assault in December 2019, but the Wake County District Attorney's Office declined to pursue criminal charges in that case at the time, per WRAL's reporting on the arrest warrants. The case sat unresolved for years until October 2026, when NC State police received a new report claiming Kranzburg was responsible not only for the December 2019 assault but also for a separate assault in February 2019 — the same month cited in the first set of charges.
That new information prompted the Wake County District Attorney's Office to decide to pursue both cases, the station's report notes. The reversal came nearly seven years after the alleged December 2019 incident was first reported to campus police.
Allegations Detailed in Arrest Warrants
In the February 2019 case, warrants allege Kranzburg forced sex on another person. In the December 2019 case, warrants allege he kidnapped, restrained, and sexually assaulted the victim, and that he strangled the victim with his bare hands, causing bruising to the victim's neck, according to the same report. Warrants also accuse Kranzburg of biting the victims' lips by force.
Kranzburg graduated cum laude from NC State with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in spring 2021, according to CBS 17's reporting. He was also a commissioning ROTC Army officer, the station reported, and arrest records list his employer as the United States Army and his address as Fort Benning, an Army post in Georgia, where he was reportedly living at the time of his arrest. WRAL said it has reached out to Fort Benning to ask whether Kranzburg is or was a soldier.
Held Without Bond, Court Appearance Scheduled
Kranzburg is being held at the Wake County Detention Center without bond. His first court appearance was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to WRAL. The evidence reviewed does not establish the eventual outcome of either case, and no additional details about the alleged victims have been made public.
