Suicide of Bill Conradt
The suicide of Bill Conradt was the November 2006 death of a local assistant district attorney in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex while Texas police served him with search and arrest warrants stemming from a Dateline NBC Perverted-Justice online sting of men soliciting sex with children. Perverted-Justice (PJ) and Dateline conducted their sting, luring men to a bait house in Murphy, Texas. Conradt was one of the men who solicited the PJ volunteer masquerading as a minor, but did not travel to Murphy. Instead, a group of police, Dateline, and PJ personnel executed questionable arrest and search warrants at Conradt's home in Terrell, Texas. After SWAT breached the house, Conradt shot himself. The suicide was another point of contention over To Catch a Predator three-party relationship between law-enforcement, civilian volunteers, and the news media. Police were criticized for improper execution of their duties in the service of ratings, and NBC was criticized for leading police operations at the expense of safety and justice. Ultimately, there continue to be unresolved conflicting claims from both the people involved in the sting, and the investigative journalists who have researched and reported on it. A wrongful death lawsuit brought by Conradt's sister was settled out of court, and none of the other men arrested in the sting were prosecuted. To Catch a PredatorTo Catch a Predator To Catch a Predator is a series that recurred on the TV news magazine Dateline NBC. Hosted by Chris Hansen, it premiered in autumn 2004, and was immediately an unambiguous ratings success. For upwards of per episode, the production hired controversial vigilante group Perverted-Justice to assist in the "exposure [and] arrest of men ostensibly interested in having sex with children." Perverted-Justice entered chat rooms and posed as children to lure such men to a sting operation. By early 2007, the segment had been praised by the United States Congress, and Dateline own records counted 238 apprehensions and 36 guilty verdicts. David M.
