NBC resolves lawsuit over 'To Catch a Predator' suicide

NEW YORK — NBC Universal has “amicably resolved” a $105-million lawsuit filed by a woman whose brother committed suicide during a taping of its controversial “Dateline NBC” series “To Catch a Predator,” both parties said today.

Bruce Baron, an attorney for Patricia Conradt, told The Times in an interview today that “the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.”

Conradt’s brother, Louis William Conradt Jr., a 56-year-old assistant county prosecutor in a Dallas suburb, shot himself in November 2006 when officers showed up at his house as part of a pedophilia sting arranged by “Dateline.”

Patricia Conradt sued NBC last July, claiming that the network interfered with police duties and then failed to protect her brother's safety.

When asked today about the status of the suit, NBC News spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff echoed Baron, saying “the matter has been amicably resolved.”

Both sides declined to comment on when they came to agreement or the terms of the resolution. A sealed document regarding the suit was filed with the court June 3, but the case remains open, according a spokesman for the New York Southern District Court.

The resolution of the lawsuit caps a controversial chapter for “Dateline,” which drew both ratings bonanzas and sharp critiques for its “To Catch a Predator” investigations. In the segments, which NBC began airing in 2004, the newsmagazine worked with an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice to contact men online who were seeking to meet underage children for sex, then lure them to a house, where they were confronted on camera. Police waiting outside then arrested the men.

Media ethicists objected to the deception used in the investigation, as well as NBC’s close relationship with law enforcement agencies in the jurisdictions where it set up stings.

NBC News executives staunchly defended the “Predator” investigations but eventually concluded the series had become too highly charged to continue. “Dateline” quietly aired its 12th and final installment of “Predator” in late December.

Tartikoff said that “Dateline” is currently focused on investigative stories about national security and the economy, adding that if the newsmagazine pursues further “Predator” segments, “we want to make sure we are complementing past investigations, not just repeating them.”

Louis Conradt was one of two dozen men in the Dallas-Fort Worth area snared by the ninth “Predator” sting in the fall of 2006. He allegedly engaged in a sexually explicit online chat with a Perverted Justice member posing as a 13-year-old boy, and then an actor invited Conradt to meet him at a decoy house NBC set up in Murphy, Texas.

But Conradt did not show up at a camera-rigged house, where “Dateline” correspondent Chris Hansen and local police were waiting, outfitted with cameras provided by NBC, Hansen later told Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA-TV, which did its own investigation into the incident.

The next day, a "Dateline" crew and a team of officers went to find Conradt at his home in a nearby town. "Dateline" cameras taped the scene as a police tactical team forced its way into Conradt’s house. As the officers entered, Conradt shot himself with a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun. He died later at a nearby hospital.

The incident was featured in a “To Catch a Predator” segment that aired on “Dateline” in February 2007.

In her lawsuit, Patricia Conradt accused NBC of being “concerned more with its own profits than with pedophilia.”

She claimed a police officer at the scene of the shooting told a “Dateline” producer: “That’ll make good TV.”

The network said her suit was without merit.

But in February, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled that the case could go forward on claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights.

Chin dismissed some causes of action but said in his ruling that the network “placed itself squarely in the middle of a police operation, pushing the police to engage in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show.”

“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,” Chin wrote.

At the time, NBC said it planned to fight the claim, saying it had “acted responsibly and lawfully.”

“Dateline’s” Murphy sex sting failed to net any convictions. The Collin County district attorney’s office declined to pursue more than 20 cases related to the “Predator” operation, citing problems with the evidence gathered.

--Matea Gold

matea.gold@latimes.com

Photo: "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen (NBC Media Village)

Comments

[Amazed]

I think that many of the people obsessed with "killing the pervs" are akin to homophobes - they're obsessed because they have their own issues with the sexuality of children and minors, as homophobes often have issues about their own sexuality and feelings towards the same sex. On the other hand I think there's another group of people supporting NBC in this matter that have one or more precious children and they're trying to protect them in a rather reactionary, ineffective, and uninformed way.

I have a 5 year old daughter and she means the world to me, but I am convinced that this type of show will not protect her in any way. If any of you think it does, then you are just deluding yourself. If you love your children then you must protect them by communicating directly to them throughout their lives about the real dangers they'll face - this is really the only way you can protect them. Basically one of our biggest roles as parents is to teach our children to protect themselves.

Law enforcement will never rid the world of pedophiles. These are sick people that need to be treated for their illness. Sticking them in our overcrowded jails without treatment will only make the problem worse.

[Robert Mack]

Nobody...not DATELINE nor PERVERTED JUSTICE could lure me into that sort of behavior. I mean the guy's a seaoned prosecutor who gets lured into that sort of thing.....I don't think so. Let's see if I understand this whole thing...he commits a felonous act.....kills himself when outed .....and then some other entity is to blame.....

He's just one more piece of trash off of the street....regardless of how much money his sister got.

Oh...here's another bit of Plato from the poster calling himself Amazed. "Law enforcement will never rid the world of pedophiles. These are sick people that need to be treated for their illness. Sticking them in our overcrowded jails without treatment will only make the problem worse." Wow what an idoit!

[Anonymous]

I hope all you people who defend Dateline realize that no pedophile has been caught. What you are supporting is the abuse of police force to satisfy your thirst for blood. Instead of letting the police work to catch those commiting pedophilia for real, Dateline makes them hunt people who only chat. In a twisted way, you could say that Dateline helps the real pedophiles.

Or are all of you supporters members of perverted-justice.com? You think they do it for the safety of your children? Then better don't read the IRS documents Xavier Von Erck filed to get tax-exempt status. NBC paid them $802,520 in 2006 for 7 operations. That's over $100.000 per ruined life. Von Erck and his two staff members each earn $120,000 a year. Not a bad paying job, eh?

I also have to agree with those posters who said that it's important to teach your kids. It's up to you to make sure your kids understand what not to do online. But it's so much easier to cry and blame the rest of the world, right? Then don't have children.

For those interested in more than blood:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/perverted-justi.html
http://corrupted-justice.com/

[paula]

the only way anyone could side with the sister is ONLY if they support chilld molestors and/or pedophiles. this man had electronic contact with the "child". what was on his computer is a crime. his sister should be ashamed of herself, her brother, and her family. if her child was on the recieveing end of a pedophile's attention, her tune would be different. her brother is burning in a special corner in hell for who & what he was, and this b****h wants money?! she should sue her mother for raising a sick & twisted cowardly bastard who preyed on children and then killed himself when faced with his deeds, rather than own up to what he did. SHAME!!!!!

[paula]

the only way anyone could side with the sister is ONLY if they support chilld molestors and/or pedophiles. this man had electronic contact with the "child". what was on his computer is a crime. his sister should be ashamed of herself, her brother, and her family. if her child was on the recieveing end of a pedophile's attention, her tune would be different. her brother is burning in a special corner in hell for who & what he was, and this b****h wants money?! she should sue her mother for raising a sick & twisted cowardly bastard who preyed on children and then killed himself when faced with his deeds, rather than own up to what he did. SHAME!!!!!

[nick]

Soliciting sex from a minor is illegal, and thats what they went to arrest him for. Not for having sex, or showing up to have sex, but for arranging to have sex in the first place. Its a crime, and he did it. Im glad this piece of garbage decided to kill himself, and I hope his sister blows all of her money from it on cocaine and ODs. Adn while the show may not have protected any kids, the reality of it is it got these sacks of filth off the streets, even for a little bit.

I just wish he would have gone to jail and been raped by the same people he put in there. God that would have been sooooo much more humiliating.

[texasjustice]

It's a sad day when a federal judge decides that a news organization "engaged in conduct so outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it" when they cover a a story about a PROSECUTOR who is trolling for little boys (from his office no less). Of course that conduct by someone entrusted to protect the public isn't outrageous, is it???--at least not to the NY, pro-sex offender, child molester Judge Chin! Someone should check Chin's computer.

[Mel]

Have any of you actually seen what happens after these episodes?? Have you seen that Perverted Justice refuses to turn over their computers for evidence? That they actually go into ADULT chat rooms and solicit men in the open chat until those men invite them into a private chat? Because they know that there is no way to see that open chat once you close it. I have been in many chat rooms looking for what these people call "pedophiles" and have not found one yet. I think pedophiles are disgusting. I have my own children and would definitely hurt anyone that tried to hurt them. And I myself was raped as a child. But I do not agree with what they are doing. We have LE for a reason. I have actually seen a chat that they manipulated to make the person look guilty when he wasn't. And no one seems to care about that. All these people want is money. They could care less about helping to protect children. If that was the case then why was "Xavier" in a chat room where he saw children being solicited and he didn't call the cops?? Why did they do this for so long and never get the cops involved?? Because they don't care about the children. They just wanted to make money. I definitely agree that pedophiles should go to jail and should have counseling. But they should not be caught by someone who disregards the law completely.

[outraged]

NBC debased everyone that had the misfrotune to see the show. I saw it in the airport while traveling and was appalled.

What kind of person would watch a show like that for entertainment? Do you feel so terrible about yourself that you enjoy the downfall of sick lonely men who have been entrapped? Do you enjoy creating hysteria? You've helped turn a once great country into a large herd of cowardly sheep, so afraid of your neighbor that you think everyone must be after your children.

In the 1980s it was "Satanic Panic" - in a few years we'll be talking about the pedophile sex scare of the turn of the century.

I think any adult who would have sex with a pre pubescent child is horrific and a monster. But you get into seriously shakey ground when you criminalize people's thoughts or expressions.
Would you all lynch Nabokov for writing Lolita? And clap while you watched it on TV?

I'm glad Patricia Conradt got something out of the deal. I hope it's enough to make NBC think long and hard before presenting this kind of trash as "entertainment." I hope this kind of fear mongering and titilation goes the way of the Nazis. They're certainly their moral equivalent.

[anonymous]

All of you speak like you're the judge, trial, and jury. My mother left me out to the open world of the internet at a young age, and its a scary world out there (she knew very little about computers then.) Perverted Justice does what it can to protect our minors when parents fail at their parental duty. I am not saying Mr. Conradt is innocent or guilty of any crime. I have to disagree with Dateline's tactic of visiting at his home. They had not done that to any other "suspect". However, the money that his sister was asking for was a grossly large amount for a wrongful death.

And to those who say that the "child decoy is under 13." Not all decoys used on that show were at that age. Do your research. Yes, they used a child at certain times to lure the men into the home. Yes, it was stupid to use a minor to lure men in. But safety of the child was taken very seriously.

The "predators" are the ones that initiate the sexual chat and suggest the meeting. The decoys just feed into what they think a "victim" would know to get the information needed. The decoys go through many steps before they can even be trained go out and wait "predators" to attack. Perverted Justice does more than chatrooms as well. Myspace and other websites as such are often targeted by "predators" as well.

Parents should also have some control over what their kids can do online. We shouldn't have to be reminded via a T.V. show that our children are not safe online. Parents should be involved with their children before these people have a chance to strike.

[Ashley Hardwick]

I don't see why these criminals deserve any rights. They try to hurt our children and then, we sit there and say they deserve rights. Hell no they don't! Embarrass these assholes and ruin their lives. They ruin children's lives! It's not NBC's fault he killed himself. They didn't pull the trigger. He deserves to die anyways!

[JMONEY]

GOOD FOR HIM!!! IT'S BETTER HE KILLED HIS SELF. HE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN PROBATION ANYWAYS AND CONTINUED HIS PERVETED ANTICS, SCARRING ANOTHER YOUNG CHILD. YES, 13 IS STILL A YOUNG CHILD. WHAT IF ONE OF HIS VICTIMS GREW UP AND KILLED THEMSELVES BECAUSE OF HIM? WHO WOULD HIS SISTER BE SUING THEN?

[SICKOFIT]

I can't believe that they didn't mention a ton of child porn was found on Conradt's phone and computer. I'm glad he shot himself. His money hungry sister just made it easier for pedos to get away with hurting children. They need to keep hunting predators on camera. I so sick of people defending this disgusting pedophiles and acting like they were entrapped. If he was so innocent why did he put a bullet in his head. and I think there have been some convections in Dallas for that episode. Why are they not telling the whole truth makes you wonder huh if NBC tried to help take Dateline down because they were in a ratings war?

[paxus]

People, WTF is going on with you? Many cases presented on "To Catch a Predator" wouldn't be considered illegal in most countries in the world. The age of consent is ABSURD in most US states. The age of consent is 14 in: most of the EU(13 in Spain), China, Japan(13-17), South Korea(13), most of South America, Mexico (12-17), Thailand, etc.

How the heck could you call "pedophile", "predator", "molester" , etc. a 20 year old for having sex with a 15 year old? Are completely sick?

[Stephen C.]

I can't believe the oversimplified comments being made on here. What Conradt did was both immoral and criminal. But does justice mean vengeance or the protection of life and community? Isn't justice supposed to protect INALIENABLE human dignity and rights? The bloodlust on here is disgusting. Conradt and others are entitled to due process before being publicly shamed. Further, Conradt's family and friends should not have to bear the public shaming caused by NBC. This show could have been informative and empowering for our society without showing the faces or giving the names of these people before they have received due process of law. We can protect children and communities, can educate communities, and can warn potential predators without publicly shaming people who have not received due process of law and whose family and friends do not deserve to suffer unnecessarily because of these terrible circumstances. I think we should all be asking ourselves why we enjoy seeing the faces, shaming, suffering, and ultimate destruction of those who have not even seen due process of law? And what do we gain by the public shaming and destruction of those who do immoral actions or commit crimes? What is accomplished?

[MixedBag]

Innocent until proven guilty? What on earth are you all talking about? The guy shot himself to avoid being arrested. We're all assuming that it was somehow related to his online chats with the NBC dateline decoy, but we don't know that. Fact is, he wasn't convicted or even charged. He was being arrested, that's all. And he chose, as an adult, to take his own life rather than be arrested.

He was a lawyer. He knew, if he had any understanding of federal law, that he was engaged in illegal conduct on the web. We are all assuming it is this knowledge that led him to shoot himself. But we don't know that at all.

Fact is, based on the chat room transcripts, he had committed a crime and he due to his legal education he was probably aware of that. What many people on this thread don't seem to get is that simply chatting in a lewd and lascivious way with a minor is a crime. You don't have to wait for them to engage in a sexual act with a child to commit a crime. They already committed a crime by engaging in that kind of banter online. Don't tell me about freedom of speech. You can't say anything you want without consequences. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. You can't threaten to kill the President of the USA. And you can't engage in explicit conversation with underage kids.

To the guy who says that pedophilia is confined to sexual attraction to only pre-pubescent children, what is the matter with you? There are several stages of sexual maturation (Tanner stages) which vary in their completion but are not complete until at least 16 -18 or so and often go into the early 20s. By no standard is the sexual maturation of a 13 year old complete, no matter how sexually mature the kid may appear. And the problem with this whole line of reasoning is that physical maturation is not the problem with soliciting a 13 year old. Anyone who has spent a fraction of a second with a 13 year old knows how emotionally immature and vulnerable most of them are, even the ones who seem mature initially. So anyone soliciting a 13 year old for sex is a pedophile, case closed. You're splitting hairs in a very troubling way.

As for the idiot who tried to draw a comparison to the guys risking their lives and limbs in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, evidently you have no idea what the physical, emotional and intellectual differences between a 13 year old and an 18 year old. That analogy doesn't hold water and is simply a sad and pathetic way to interject your objection to the debacle in Iraq into a totally unrelated conversation.

[Nick J]

When they pretend to be girls they probably pretend to say things no young girl would ever say. On top of all that there is no actual victim, just a bunch of grown men talking to each other on the internet. The whole thing is sick. Chris Hanson is attacking men using a known vulnerability built in to all men. He found a legal loop hole into attacking all the men in the world that aren't him and he gets to look like the good guy.

We are sending people to jail for playing role playing games.

What is next, thought police? Maybe Steven King should be arrested for all those pretend people he kills?

Take this show off the air. Chris Hanson should be held responsible. Maybe he'll get his in hell.

[Philip Higgins]

What a shame it is that so many posts on this board are in support of a perverted individual who was outed and couldn't handle it. He did break the law simply by having a sexual chat with what he though was a minor. He was going to be arrested for a crime HE DID COMMIT. I think NBC did a great job with this series. If people don't like being shown in their perversions they shouldn't try to involve children. All these disgusting men deserve every bit of shame this TV show could give them and more! They deserve to be stigmatized and branded FOR LIFE. They were very willing to have sex with children with no regard for their victims and if it screws up their lives too bad, imagine if it wasn't a watchdog group on the other side, but your child.

[Philip Higgins]

For those of you screaming entrapment, or that no crime was committed. You should know that when that piece of human filth had explicit online chat with a child, HE COMMITTED A FELONY. I wish more human pieces of crap did the same as he did, I'm tired of my tax dollars paying to keep them locked up.

[Monique Pratt]

I was molested by a pedophile when I was 8 years old and I am scared for life. I am so grateful for this show. I have watched all of the NBC’s series on how to catch a predator. These are sick people out there preying on our children. This show takes these sick people off the streets and makes them accountable for their SICK actions. Of course NBC wants the ratings, but they also are doing some good at the same time. The show SAVES children from being molested or worse! I can’t understand why NBC has to pay one cent – the woman’s brother was SICK and was upset because he got caught! His little dark secret was let out of the bag! Did anyone look into his past to see how many children he may have screwed up? I don’t understand how our judicial system can reward someone for this crap! He committed suicide? He did not want to pay for his actions – bottom line. At the end of the day only God can truly judge us and we are accountable to him for our actions. Me personally there is one less person out there to worry about preying on our children!