"If professionals had been running the show, they would have done a much better job rather than being at the beck and call of outsiders."Īs details of the suicide emerged, Murphy's mayor, City Council and most of its residents learned for the first time that potential molesters were being luring to their city. "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. 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.
#Dateline to catch a predator full#
"Certainly these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but the fact that this was all done for television cameras raises some questions," said Mayor Bret Baldwin. The Murphy city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor.Īnd the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs. One of the 25 men caught in the sting - a prosecutor from a neighboring county - committed suicide when police came to arrest him.
MURPHY, Texas (June 28) - A sting in which police teamed up with "Dateline NBC" to catch online pedophiles was supposed to send a flinty-eyed, Texas-style warning about this Dallas suburb: Don't mess with Murphy.
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