District Attorney Caught In NBC's "Dateline" Predator Sting Commits Suicide

[matcom]

<snip>

(11/06/06 - TERRELL, TX) - Former Kaufman County District Attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. killed himself Sunday as police tried to serve an arrest warrant for soliciting sex with a minor, authorities said.

Police who entered Conradt's home when he refused to answer the door heard a shot and found Conradt fatally wounded with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at a Dallas hospital.

Murphy police Sgt. Snow Robertson said Conradt had solicited sex from a decoy posing online as a 13-year-old. Murphy police were attempting to serve a search warrant for his computer and the arrest warrant when Conradt shot himself.

The Dallas Morning News reported in its online editions Sunday that the sting that resulted in Conradt's arrest warrant was a joint operation between Perverted Justice, an Internet watchdog group, and NBC's "Dateline" that lured men seeking sex with children to a house in Murphy.


Murphy police said Conradt had not gone to the house there but they believed he would.

Robertson said there was nothing police could to do prevent Conradt's death.

"When somebody decides to do this, there is nothing you can do," he said.

Conradt had worked for the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office for more than two decades before giving up the position of district attorney to run an unsuccessful campaign for judge. He was chief felony assistant district attorney for Rockwall County.

Murphy Mayor Bret Bishop told the newspaper that he hopes Murphy won't be used again as a trap for child predators.

"We're going to do whatever we need to do to make sure this doesn't continue," he said. "I think it's a noble cause, but our police department is hired to serve and protect our citizens, and not to expose them to outside threats."

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=state&id=4731519&ft=print

[Maine-ah]

1. shit, what the hell do you say about something like this?

These people need to get caught, and punished, but is what NBC doing the right way to go about it? I mean actually putting this shit on the tv.

I'm rather torn on it.

[Kerrytravelers]

3. I've heard arguments favoring what Dateline is doing. It's hard to argue

against the arguments, but I'm with you. There is something salacious about putting it on tv. I'm sure there are others with different opinions. Perhaps I can be persuaded to see this a different way, but right now, I feel like it's a cheap ratings ploy.

[slj0101]

2. Here's the dilemma:

I think it's great that these sexual predator types are being caught before they do any further damage, but to turn it into a ratings bonanza is crass and sick. It's like a modern-day public execution.

[Coventina]

4. Sigh. I just don't like this. The guy didn't even go to the house.

He chatted online with someone posing as a 13 year old.

And he was going to be arrested for that, his life ruined.

So he took his own life.

What his family must be going through.

All for a "victim" that never even existed.

Somehow, I just don't feel that justice has been served.

[anarch]

5. yes, but "Perverted Justice" has been served

[Giant Robot]

6. No there was no "victim"

But it is illegal to solicit sex from minors. So a crime was committed even though the person was an adult, the alleged perpetrator thought the person was a minor and was acting on that. Police go undercover routinely to bust drug dealers for example, so going undercover as a minor should not be that much of a leap. This is more proactive than probably any other type of criminal investigation, so I can certainly understand your concern about where does this stop and how to protect the masses from a police state. But a crime was committed here.

I do not think that Dateline is doing a service to the community by putting these specials out there. It just turns it into a freakshow in my opinion. And I think this is a subject that needs to be dealt with a lot more seriously and maturely than what they are doing.

[libodem]

7. He might as well have been dead

his life was ruined. I'm not in favor of predators (playing devil's advcate) but this fervor for catching and humiliating them seems exploitive in its own salacious way. I worked with a gal who was married to a sexual offender who was busted at 18 for having sex with a 17 year old. The small town had gone wacko with prosecuting anyone they could dredge up. This guy has to register for the rest of his life. Sometimes criminal justice just seems to go through phases of special societal pressures that seem faddish.