Posted on 08/14/2007 4:27:34 AM PDT by Dudoight
The show was an instant success. It lured would-be child-sex predators to a public shaming, delivered by a handsome host. Ratings, awards and even praise from members of Congress followed. But now Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series is taking heat. And so is the police chief of the Collin County town that hosted it eight months ago. The troubles stem from the show's visit to Murphy, where more than 20 people were arrested but escaped prosecution because of evidence problems. Also a former district attorney ensnared in the sting shot himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
The way NBC and their cohorts pursued these people can be considered entrapment and will be easily proven in a court of law... NBC cut, diced and spliced their little story... this really disgusts me for them to sensationalize this while the real perpetrators of pedophilia are out and about doing their disgusting, vile evil, acts.
He did not.
LOL!
It would be a revealing read, no doubt.
I am not saying that Conradt was as pure as driven snow. I am saying we don’t know.
According to you, everyone but the adult trying to pick up children.
He is innocent - those experienced, worldly-wise 12 year old girls or boys led him on, the TV producer entrapped him, the police who disgracefully dared to arrest him are all guilty.
He's just misunderstood.
[you kinda’ have to molest a child or something...]
A guy points a gun to your head, pulls the trigger, it misfires, he is charged with improper use of a firearm and released.
Do you have a good nights sleep that night?
What the hell are you talking about? What conceivable relevance can it have to the question at hand?
You’re not giving Conradt enough credit. The man was a District Attorney. There is no reporting on his affectiveness as a District Attorney, but that isn’t a job that is just handed out. As a District Attorney he has more than likely faced a great number of adversarial situations and his experience would have prepared him to stare down this bold face lie.
Yes, you think having sex with an experienced teen is different from having sex with an inexperienced teen. It's still statutory rape, in my book, and any adult who would even think about having sex with a teen of any kind should be cruelly killed. That's where I leave the rule of law behind, here.
You may be right, but you may be wrong.
We will never know. We may suspect, but we will never know.
Appy - the former DA did indeed talk about a rendezvous and then backed out and never showed up. From all outward appearances he never committed a crime. Yet a tactical team surrounded and broke into his house like he was dealing in WMDs. They did it solely for the benefit of NBC.
I've come 180 degrees on this since the last thread FR had on it. I did some reading and I'm pretty disgusted by the way NBC and Perverted Justice work.
So we have to wait for a child to be a victim before we act?
I’m not into that weak girly justice crap. If a man mails a picture of his pecker to someone he thinks is a child, that proves enough intent for me. There is NO excuse for that behavior. The idea that we have to wait for a child to get raped before we act is stupid and naive.
No. Entrapment requires that a police officer or government agent overcome the free will of the defendant. It's a form of coercion.
Believe me when I say I take no pleasure whatsoever in that. It's very sad (and one minor reason I moved on to teaching elsewhere)...
As to the intent, I have no problem charging the guy with "contributing to the delinquency..." or even "unlawful meeting" or whatever laws there actually are to describe what he did do. Bust his *ss! But, unless NBC releases the full transcripts or we get other info to the contrary, I have to lean towards what happened online as being somewhat ambiguous, hence the dismissal of other charges by the DA. I wouldn't be suprise to find out that the NBC stooge set up the meeting, etc., and this guy played along without any intent to show up. Likely (maybe not)? But possible?
One could make the argument that as a District Attorney he would know that it is possible to ruin a person's life without ever stepping in a courtroom. He would know that a false accusation, once broadcast on national TV, is as good as fact, and that the accused life is irretrievably ruined.
Who knows? Perhaps there was even a fair measure of self-loathing involved because he had managed to stupidly get himself involved in this horrendous situation.
We will never know. The man is dead.
If he was guilty, then good riddance. IMHO, if he was guilty, then he would have killed himself anyway. But, I think that the correct thing to do was for NBC to turn their evidence over to the police and let them handle it. That wouldn't have made "Good TV", though.
There are no good guys in this entire story.
Ever notice that this series is never filmed in Washington DC, or any city that is a state capitol? Now why would that be, I wonder?
It is not impossible that the dead guy was a good guy.
We will never know.
Of course, you could take Dateline NBC's word for it. I picked up a real nice low milage pickup truck for a song from somebody who took Dateline NBC's word, once...
They don't want to cause a traffic jam.
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