Louis Conradt
Encyclopedia
Louis William "Bill" Conradt, Jr. (January 30, 1950 - November 5, 2006) was a district attorney
in Texas
. He became inextricably linked to Dateline NBC
's To Catch a Predator
, a TV series which conducted sting operation
s against suspected sexual predator
s. Local law enforcement conducted a sting operation that identified Conradt as a suspect and Dateline cameras recorded the events that followed. Conradt fatally shot himself upon encountering SWAT
team members that were serving an arrest warrant at his home.
and received his law degree
at Texas Tech University School of Law
. He was the Kaufman County
, Texas
district attorney
for more than two decades before giving up his seat to make a failed run in 2002 to be the 86th State District Judge. Afterwards, he became Rockwall County
's chief felony assistant district attorney.
Conradt lived in Terrell
, about an hour southeast of Murphy
, where Perverted-Justice, working in conjunction with Dateline, had set up shop to conduct its predator stings.
Records show that Conradt was single and lived alone.
s with a person using the alias of a fictional 13 year old named Luke. Conradt solicited pictures of "Luke's" penis
and sent him photos purporting to be of himself. After two weeks of these exchanges Perverted-Justice and NBC brought in an actor to play Luke over the phone. For reasons that are still not known, Conradt stopped responding to phone calls and instant messages
. It was then that police decided to bring the operation to Conradt's home in Terrell.
page began to disappear, leading them to believe that Conradt was covering up his tracks. This played a part in the decision of the authorities (and Dateline, as some allege) to pursue a warrant for Conradt's arrest. Chris Hansen mentioned the disappearing page on his blog and on-air. Esquire writer Luke Dittrich implies that the disappearing page pushed the participants to make an imminent move as, under Texas law, individuals may be charged with committing a crime if they participate in explicit chats with persons identifying themselves as children.
Later investigation by Esquire revealed that Conradt's page had not been touched for months before the sting. Perverted-Justice members claimed that Conradt had other MySpace pages, but never produced the evidence for such. Chris Hansen later admitted to Esquire that he did not remember actually seeing the page.
The warrants were signed shortly after 2 p.m. By this time, police and Dateline had been on the scene for hours. In fact, Dateline had showed up as long as five hours earlier, and later records showed that neighbors had phoned in suspicious persons reports.
According to the Esquire account – again, contested by Dateline – Dateline crewmembers notified police that they observed that a Sunday newspaper on Conradt's doorstep had disappeared, indicating that Conradt was actually home. Later, in an interview with Esquire, Hansen would claim that he did not remember the incident, nor would he characterize anything Dateline did as surveillance for the police.
Using the tip given to them by Dateline, the police made a decision to call in a SWAT team and perform a tactical entry. They feared that Conradt was aware of their presence and was now destroying evidence. The police broke the door's lock and swept through the house. They encountered Conradt in a hallway. According to the officers' account, Conradt said a variation of "I'm not going to hurt anyone." He then shot himself in the head with a Browning
.380 handgun.
that To Catch a Predator and Perverted-Justice conducted, Conradt's was unique in that the show's producers and police decided to go to Conradt's home. In other cases, To Catch a Predator lured suspected sex offenders
with an actor or actress pretending to be a child, into a home that was wired with cameras and surrounded by police.
Conradt's death prompted increased criticism of the show, which was already being criticized by some, in the legal and journalistic profession. A year after the incident, Rolling Stone
and Esquire
published articles attacking To Catch a Predator. Esquire obtained raw footage of the incident that contradicted Datelines and host Chris Hansen
's previous denials of the show's alleged collusion with law enforcement officials.
Hansen did not respond to the Esquire article when the Houston Chronicle
asked for comment, but deferred to his spokeswoman, who called the idea that Hansen would dictate police action "preposterous".
Perverted-Justice founder Xavier von Erck called the Esquire article fiction. Though he did not respond to the Esquire story's allegation or supporting evidence that Dateline and Perverted-Justice directed police actions in the Conradt case, he reiterated his disgust for Conradt's behavior. In an e-mail response to the Houston Chronicle, he wrote, "The idea that anything led to the suicide of Conradt other than his want to avoid potential penalties for soliciting a 13-year-old boy sexually is outlandish. We encourage all interested to read the Conradt chat-logs and verification call recordings. Once you do that, you then immediately know why Conradt shot himself rather than face the criminal justice system."
Facts from the aired February 20, 2007 episode of To Catch a Predator were used as part of a $100 million lawsuit by Conradt's sister, Patricia Conradt, against NBC Universal Inc
. In March 2008, the judge in the case agreed to allow her infliction of emotional distress
and civil rights claims to be heard by a jury.
ABC News
later did an investigation of the incident on its own news show, 20/20 (see To Catch a Predator for more information).
In 2007 state investigators found three laptops, a cell phone and several computer disks in Conradt's home, some containing child pornography.
On June 24, 2008, the lawsuit brought before NBC Universal by Patricia Conradt was "amicably resolved".
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. He became inextricably linked to Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
's To Catch a Predator
To Catch a Predator
To Catch a Predator is an American reality television series that features hidden camera investigations by the television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC. It is devoted to impersonating underage youth and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons...
, a TV series which conducted sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
s against suspected sexual predator
Sexual predator
The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...
s. Local law enforcement conducted a sting operation that identified Conradt as a suspect and Dateline cameras recorded the events that followed. Conradt fatally shot himself upon encountering SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team members that were serving an arrest warrant at his home.
Personal life and career
Conradt graduated from the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
and received his law degree
Law degree
A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...
at Texas Tech University School of Law
Texas Tech University School of Law
The Texas Tech University School of Law is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Known nationally for their continual success in trial advocacy competitions, the school focuses on forming practical lawyers who are ready to practice law upon...
. He was the Kaufman County
Kaufman County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 71,313 people, 24,367 households, and 19,225 families residing in the county. The population density was 91/sq mi . There were 26,133 housing units at an average density of 33/sq mi...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
for more than two decades before giving up his seat to make a failed run in 2002 to be the 86th State District Judge. Afterwards, he became Rockwall County
Rockwall County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 43,080 people, 14,530 households, and 11,972 families residing in the county. The population density was 334 people per square mile . There were 15,351 housing units at an average density of 119 per square mile...
's chief felony assistant district attorney.
Conradt lived in Terrell
Terrell, Texas
Terrell is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States, and a southeastern suburb of Dallas. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 13,606...
, about an hour southeast of Murphy
Murphy, Texas
Murphy is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States and a suburb of Dallas, located to the north east of the city. The 2010 census reported Murphy's population as 17,708.-About:...
, where Perverted-Justice, working in conjunction with Dateline, had set up shop to conduct its predator stings.
Records show that Conradt was single and lived alone.
Alleged interactions with Perverted-Justice
According to Perverted-Justice's logs, Conradt, posing as a 19 year-old university student, engaged in sexually charged online chatOnline chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
s with a person using the alias of a fictional 13 year old named Luke. Conradt solicited pictures of "Luke's" penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
and sent him photos purporting to be of himself. After two weeks of these exchanges Perverted-Justice and NBC brought in an actor to play Luke over the phone. For reasons that are still not known, Conradt stopped responding to phone calls and instant messages
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
. It was then that police decided to bring the operation to Conradt's home in Terrell.
Conradt's alleged MySpace page
According to Perverted-Justice members, content from Conradt's MySpaceMySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page began to disappear, leading them to believe that Conradt was covering up his tracks. This played a part in the decision of the authorities (and Dateline, as some allege) to pursue a warrant for Conradt's arrest. Chris Hansen mentioned the disappearing page on his blog and on-air. Esquire writer Luke Dittrich implies that the disappearing page pushed the participants to make an imminent move as, under Texas law, individuals may be charged with committing a crime if they participate in explicit chats with persons identifying themselves as children.
Later investigation by Esquire revealed that Conradt's page had not been touched for months before the sting. Perverted-Justice members claimed that Conradt had other MySpace pages, but never produced the evidence for such. Chris Hansen later admitted to Esquire that he did not remember actually seeing the page.
Legal maneuverings
According to the Esquire article, members from Perverted-Justice faxed the Collin County District Attorney's office, requesting support for an upcoming sting. District attorney John Roach was surprised that the request came from a civilian group rather than the police. Roach told Esquire that he warned Murphy Police Chief Myrick to not deal with Dateline or Perverted-Justice, and that the DA's office "will take no part in the planning or execution of the sting operation".The sting
The official participants in the sting included Murphy police and the Terrell Police Department, including Terrell's SWAT team. According to raw footage obtained by Esquire, at least one Dateline cameraman had hidden himself near the Conradt residence door. Chris Hansen and Dateline denied that crew members were on the private property (such an act is illegal). Also in that footage is "Frag," a member of Perverted-Justice, who is seen advising police on what to do next. Chris Hansen denied that Perverted-Justice was present, but recanted when Esquire was able to describe what "Frag" looked like.The warrants were signed shortly after 2 p.m. By this time, police and Dateline had been on the scene for hours. In fact, Dateline had showed up as long as five hours earlier, and later records showed that neighbors had phoned in suspicious persons reports.
According to the Esquire account – again, contested by Dateline – Dateline crewmembers notified police that they observed that a Sunday newspaper on Conradt's doorstep had disappeared, indicating that Conradt was actually home. Later, in an interview with Esquire, Hansen would claim that he did not remember the incident, nor would he characterize anything Dateline did as surveillance for the police.
Using the tip given to them by Dateline, the police made a decision to call in a SWAT team and perform a tactical entry. They feared that Conradt was aware of their presence and was now destroying evidence. The police broke the door's lock and swept through the house. They encountered Conradt in a hallway. According to the officers' account, Conradt said a variation of "I'm not going to hurt anyone." He then shot himself in the head with a Browning
Browning Arms Company
Browning Arms Company is a maker of firearms, bows and fishing gear. Founded in Utah in 1927, it offers a wide variety of firearms, including shotguns, rifles, pistols, and rimfire firearms and sport bows, as well as fishing rods and reels....
.380 handgun.
Events and reaction
Among the numerous stingsSting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
that To Catch a Predator and Perverted-Justice conducted, Conradt's was unique in that the show's producers and police decided to go to Conradt's home. In other cases, To Catch a Predator lured suspected sex offenders
Sex and the law
In general, laws proscribe acts which are considered either sexual abuse, or behavior that societies consider to be inappropriate and against the social norms. In addition, certain categories of activity may be considered crimes even if freely consented to...
with an actor or actress pretending to be a child, into a home that was wired with cameras and surrounded by police.
Conradt's death prompted increased criticism of the show, which was already being criticized by some, in the legal and journalistic profession. A year after the incident, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
and Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
published articles attacking To Catch a Predator. Esquire obtained raw footage of the incident that contradicted Datelines and host Chris Hansen
Chris Hansen
Christopher Edward "Chris" Hansen is an American television infotainment personality. He is known for his work on Dateline NBC, in particular the former segment known as To Catch a Predator, which revolved around catching potential Internet sex predators using a sting operation.-Career:Hansen...
's previous denials of the show's alleged collusion with law enforcement officials.
Hansen did not respond to the Esquire article when the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
asked for comment, but deferred to his spokeswoman, who called the idea that Hansen would dictate police action "preposterous".
Perverted-Justice founder Xavier von Erck called the Esquire article fiction. Though he did not respond to the Esquire story's allegation or supporting evidence that Dateline and Perverted-Justice directed police actions in the Conradt case, he reiterated his disgust for Conradt's behavior. In an e-mail response to the Houston Chronicle, he wrote, "The idea that anything led to the suicide of Conradt other than his want to avoid potential penalties for soliciting a 13-year-old boy sexually is outlandish. We encourage all interested to read the Conradt chat-logs and verification call recordings. Once you do that, you then immediately know why Conradt shot himself rather than face the criminal justice system."
Aftermath
On June 1, 2007, the Collin County District Attorney's office announced that it would not pursue any of the indictments that To Catch a Predator had netted. Officials from the DA's office believed that the cases were riddled with errors. More problematically, it appeared that nearly all of the investigative work had been done by Perverted-Justice and Dateline, with the police only playing the role of the arresting force. In its response, Perverted-Justice said it had complied with the DA, offered assistance and evidence, but had found the DA to be corrupt and lazy.Facts from the aired February 20, 2007 episode of To Catch a Predator were used as part of a $100 million lawsuit by Conradt's sister, Patricia Conradt, against NBC Universal Inc
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
. In March 2008, the judge in the case agreed to allow her infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a tort claim of recent origin for intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress. Some courts and commentators have substituted mental for emotional, but the tort is the same...
and civil rights claims to be heard by a jury.
ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
later did an investigation of the incident on its own news show, 20/20 (see To Catch a Predator for more information).
In 2007 state investigators found three laptops, a cell phone and several computer disks in Conradt's home, some containing child pornography.
On June 24, 2008, the lawsuit brought before NBC Universal by Patricia Conradt was "amicably resolved".