Judge rules family can sue "To Catch a Predator",NBC for 105 mill

**ells9824** · February 28th, 2008, 03:53 PM

Snippets from article

Louis William Conradt Jr., a suburban Dallas prosecutor, fatally shot himself after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy, according to a lawsuit filed by his sister.

In the lawsuit, Patricia Conradt said NBC "steamrolled" police to arrest her brother after telling police he failed to show up at a sting operation 35 miles away.

Chin said the lawsuit contained sufficient facts to make it plausible that the suicide was foreseeable, that police had a duty to protect Conradt from killing himself, and that the officers and NBC acted with deliberate indifference.

In his ruling, Chin said 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."He said a jury might conclude it was done solely to sensationalize and enhance the entertainment value of the arrest.

"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 said.

Before issuing his ruling, Chin said he reviewed a copy of the Feb. 20, 2007 episode. In her lawsuit, Patricia Conradt claims a police officer at the scene of the shooting told a "Dateline" producer: "That'll make good TV."

**AnalBreeze** · February 28th, 2008, 03:58 PM

Ahhh Man... That's like one of my favorite shows!
I wondered how long it would take before something like that happened!

**ells9824** · February 28th, 2008, 04:02 PM

What confuses me is the guy never showed up....I though you actually had to go to the sting house to get arrested?

**CPL CHUD** · February 28th, 2008, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by ells9824

What confuses me is the guy never showed up....I though you actually had to go to the sting house to get arrested?

Maybe what he was saying online was enough for them to give the green light, the poor pederass.

**impqueen** · February 28th, 2008, 06:27 PM

maybe the guy had a crisis of conscience and did the right thing.

**gprime** · February 28th, 2008, 11:26 PM

To Catch A Predator really needs to be pulled from the air. Airing entrapment on prime time is not okay.

**TXChris** · February 29th, 2008, 06:25 AM

Originally Posted by ells9824

Snippets from article

Chin said the lawsuit contained sufficient facts to make it plausible that the suicide was foreseeable, that police had a duty to protect Conradt from killing himself, and that the officers and NBC acted with deliberate indifference.

Now, THIS is the kind of crap that really gets to me. The police "had a duty to protect Conradt from killing himself?" WTF? Why do people feel that they have to keep others from killing themselves? The way I see it, if someone is that far off that they are honestly going to do it in the first place, then just let 'em. The police have a duty to protect innocent people from crime, which they don't do anyway, but they do not a duty to keep one from killing oneself.