![]() “The fact that somebody besides police officers were involved is what makes this case bad,” said Roach, who was informed of the sting in advance but did not participate. He said that in 16 of the cases, he had no jurisdiction, since neither the suspects nor the decoys were in the county during the online chats.Īs for the rest of the cases, he said neither police nor NBC could guarantee the chat logs were authentic and complete. Then, last month, Collin County District Attorney John Roach dropped all charges. His sister, Patricia Conradt, told the City Council that police acted as “a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.” ![]() Among them was Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from neighboring Kauffman County, who allegedly engaged in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy.Īs police knocked at his door and a “Dateline” camera crew waited in the street, Conradt shot himself. Some other suspects contacted Perverted Justice decoys online but never showed up at the house. Over four days in November, 24 men were arrested at a two-story home in one of Murphy’s newer neighborhoods after allegedly arranging to meet boys or girls there. He said secrecy was necessary for the sting to be effective. “Dateline” works with an activist group called Perverted Justice, which supplies adults who troll Internet chat rooms, posing as underage boys and girls, and try to collect incriminating sex talk.Ĭity manager Craig Sherwood approved such an operation in this well-to-do community of 11,000 after being approached by “Dateline” and Perverted Justice, but he never informed the mayor or the City Council. “Dateline” has made prime-time entertainment out of contacting would-be child molesters over the Internet, luring them to a meeting place, and videotaping their humiliating confrontations with reporter Chris Hansen. He noted that NBC appeared to have pushed the police "to engage in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show" and that a reasonable jury "could find that by doing so, NBC created a substantial risk of suicide or other harm, and that it engaged in conduct so outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it.It is the first time in nine “Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator” stings across the country in the past year and a half that prosecutors did not pursue charges. district judge dismissed some of the claims in the suit, he ruled that the case could go forward on other claims involving the intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights. In the lawsuit filed against NBC, Conradt's sister claimed a police officer at the scene told a “Dateline” producer, “That’ll make good TV.” She accused NBC of caring more about ratings and profits than the issue of pedophiles.Īs the LA Times reports, although a U.S. NBC aired the episode three months later. Conradt shot himself in the head as police forced their way into his house. So police and NBC cameras tracked him down at his house in November 2006. Conradt, Jr., however, failed to appear at the decoy site.
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