‘To Catch a Predator’: A Sting Gone Bad

There’s something deeply creepy about people who watch police stings for “entertainment.” This is just another kind of pornography and I find it sickening.

There are no possible excuses for those that harm children. Dateline’s Catch a Predator series is an excellent and necessary series. Pedophiles must be exposed to the widest possible audience because they DO NOT STOP being predators. The repeat rate for these sick people is horrible. ABC News should focus on developing shows to help society and not to try to gain news share on the tails of a highly successful series. Shame on you ABC.
Mr. Roach and all those in the chain of allowing over 20 child predators must be investigated by our FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT for dropping the all the charges against all those sickos. Something is wrong here. There has to be some level of public corruption there for dropping of charges. Is there a possibility that someone has either been paid off or someone in the prosecutors office is somehow related to one or more of those caught in the sting?
One has to remember that Perverted Justice has aided in hundreds of successful prosecutions where they were nearly all found or pleaded guilty. There methods are not flawed as they have been successful both in state and federal trials. All defense strategies have been answered in every successful case. Parents and citizens must get involved and not allow a renegade prosecutor in Texas and everywhere to DROP ALL CHARGES for those caught trying to have sexual relations with minor children of any age.

While I have no sympathy for these people and it is probably good that they are caught, there is just something unseemly about the whole “To Catch A Predator” thing, including the arrest of some folks who appear to be mentally ill. And the cops should never want anyone to see them make an arrest with all that damn yelling and the guns drawn and the “force”.

Good riddance to Conradt, people are more upset at knowing child predators are in their midst or someone that they put their trust in, such as Conradt as a district attorney. Other jurisdictions have had no promblem getting convictions, and yet the district attorney in Murpy would like to stick his head in the sand…….

Conradt
Please update your story and tell the truth that Mr. Conradt ALSO had much child pornography on his PC. He chose to commit suicide apparently solely because of GUILT. Please stop trying to make it appear as though he was an innocent victim by error.

It’s a shame Conradt committed suicide, however, it does not appear he was innocent. I have three children and have more sympathy for possible victims.

This is what happens when you turn over law enforcement to mass media. This BS needs to stop.

It is beginning to look like crime pays for voyeur hustlers more than it does the criminals! What would the hyenas of television do with out the deviants of our nation? Create some? I feel pretty certain that those of the networks that think it is o.k. to exploit the criminals and the crimes haven’t found their children’s pictures on any computer hard-drives confiscated while they are drumming up ratings!

What’s the problem? He killed himself because Dateline had cameras or because they went to arrest him on a Sunday? Since when do people suspected of felonies get a break? Of course the police should go arrest him (at any time & as soon as possible). Just becuase he is a DA doesn’t matter, he was guilty as charged and chose to take his own life. He has no one to blame but himself.

NBC better settle fast,Bruce Baron is relentless and will not leave one stone unturned.I have had cases with him and he is tough as nails.

Yeah. Smear NBC before their new season starts. That’ll work.

What sort of moron watches something like “Tocatchapredator” anyway?

NBC’s DateLine series is a fabulous public service that is directly responsible for bring hundreds of child molesters to justice, and perhaps saving hundreds more children from these animals. What’s ABC’s contribution to this cause, other than trying to throw rocks at the competition?

A PEDOPHILE IS A PEDOPHILE, IS A PEDOPHILE!!!!!!! THANK G-D DATELINE IS HELPING TO EXPOSE THIS DISGUSTING FACT OF OUR SOCIETY!! I HAVE 6 CHILDREN. I WORRY EVERYDAY ABOUT THEIR SAFETY. WHETHER THEY ARE USING A RESTROOM, ON THEIR SCHOOL BUS, INVOLVED IN AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES, OR AT A FRIENDS HOUSE, WITH THE PARENTS EVEN THERE SUPERVISING. ONE NEVER KNOWS ANYMORE. WE TRY TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN ABOUT SPEAKING TO STRANGERS, USING THE INTERNET, AND IMPROPER TOUCHING. YET, WE DON’T WANT TO INSTILL IN OUR CHILDREN SUCH A STRONG SENSE OF FEAR, THAT THEY WALK AROUND AFRAID OF EVERYTHING AND EVERY PERSON THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH. SOCIETY HAS BECOME A SCARY PLACE TO BE, AND TO RAISE CHILDREN. WHAT IS A PARENT TO DO, OTHER THAN THE ABOVE MENTIONED COMMENTS? THANK YOU DATELINE, CHRIS HANSEN, AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN CATCHING THESE SICK INDIVIDUALS.

Anything, and I mean ANYTHING that any of us can do to stop these animals from preying on children is okay in my book. If that includes luring them the same way that they lure their victims then so be it. There ought to be an entirely seperate justice system for the monsters that perpetrate crimes against children. Right on Dateline!

“The repeat rate for these sick people is horrible.”
Are you KIDDING me? The recidivism rate for sex offenders is ridiculously low. Much lower than any other crime.
Please, get your facts straight.

Shame on Chris Hansen, the police and NBC. Mr Hansens and his crew don’t care about pedophiles, all they care about is publicity.
Let the cops do their job.

Granted the police may have done a sloppy job, however the means justifys the end.
Shine the light on all PREDATORS, and lock their but’s up for LIFE. Nothings more important than protecting our youths innocent minds, and bodies.
I have no pity for the predators, regardless of how they are captured.

SHAME ON ALL OF YOU — ABC and the district attorney in Texas especially…these perverts need to be stopped. Good for NBC — in trying to weed out some of these scumbags. I don’t understand what the problem was here…all the other states/cities were run the same and all suspects were prosecuted no problem. They need to get a new DA! These men were clearly there to have sex with children — they deserve to be punished and as far as I’m concerned the one that killed himself did all of us and the world a favor..perhaps a child or children are safe who otherwise could have ended up abused or dead because of him. Keep up the good work Chris Hansen and NBC !!! Keep wedding out these despicable animals.

u guys are unbeleivable. Shame on 20/20 Protect The Children. It slowed people down I’m sure. The cinverstions are disgusting. W hat if is was your children.

Go Dateline NBC!!! Go Chris Hansen!!!
There are no possible excuses for those that harm children. Dateline’s Catch a Predator series is an excellent and necessary series to expose Pedophiles. Pedophiles must be exposed to the widest possible audience because they DO NOT STOP being predators. These sick people rape children with horrible sexual acts. ABC News “20/20″ should focus on developing shows to help society and not to try to gain news share on the tails of a highly successful series. Shame on you ABC.
Please update your story and tell the truth that Mr. Conradt ALSO had much child pornography on his PC. He chose to commit suicide apparently solely because of GUILT. Please stop trying to make it appear as though he was an innocent victim by error.
The only person that should be held responsible for anything in this whole mess is the man who was a pedophile and ultimately took his own life.

Isn’t it strange that the focus of the story is on NBC (ABC’s competitor) and not on the 20 indivivials who knowingly chatted with minors and showed up to their house, clearly not to help with homework assigments. As a mother I am outraged that these 20 individuals got off the hook. That’s the real story-too bad 20/20 lost its focus on this.

Why do we always PROTECT the criminals in this country?!?!?!?

Here is the thing about this story. These people are guilty because they have shown up to have sex with a minor. If their face is on Television, what better protection for children. Now of course you are the liberal media so these are victims to you. But let us know what you think when your kids are contacted by one of these slime balls

At least Dateline NBC is doing something about these criminals. Brian Ross, what are you doing about the problem?!
Yes, perhaps mistakes were made, but at least some people are trying to bring these criminals to justice. Stop blaming the people who are trying and start putting forth your own efforts!!!!
You are just benefiting from their publicity — not very good journalism IMHO.

Shame on ABC for criticizing another show that is giving them competition. I watched the first show and the follow
up show. Regardless of how you feel about the news media, kudos to Dateline for taking on such despicable crimes. Dateline shows have resulted in more than 120 convictions. The man who killed himself was trying to have contact with an underage teen, did 20/20 feel this is okay? What is 20/20 doing to help rid our communities of pedaphiles and child molesters. You could have used this air time for a more productive story instead of criticizing a competitor who has a successful show. It is not important who watches the show, it is more important to catch the people who come on the show. Next time 20/20 take the high road. It is hard to criticize a show that catches these type of criminals regardless of the motive.

Pathetic jounalism on your part ABC. A cheap shot at NBC.

Your piece on ‘To Catch a Predator’: A Sting Gone Bad” is more telling of how your show has gone bad. Sounds more like jealousy of a competitor(NBC). You obviously interviewed people from your point of view. How about other people who thought it was a good idea. One sided reporting is bad reporting.

Congratulations ABC, with your help maybe we can stop harassing child predators. Is this story because your network did not come up with the concept first? It’s ashamed, with so much family appropriate programing, you would do this kind of story. Nobody coaxed the predators into trolling for minors. Nobody ever forced an individual into a car to go have sex with a minor. Stop it, your arguemnets are weak. Suddenly my TV no longer gets an ABC channel.

I am APPAULED that the Murphy Texas prosecutor has dropped the charges on the 23 perverts that NBC exposed. That’s it….let’s protect these child molester again. I would like to know how that prosecutor can sleep at night. Justice? I think not!

I think ABC News is missing the point and it is sad that one station has nothing better to do than bash another station – How about we focus on the good done, not once did I hear that mentioned – they successfully exposed many predators — If one state choose not to prosecute that is there choice – but many are in jail because of NBC news – Did ABC do this because it is a successful series. Some people in life are SUE HAPPY .. whereever they can get money they will sue for it – but to condem a station NBC for taking a stand and bringing people to Justice – I don’t blame NBC for not appearing on your show… IS ABC PERFECT — I’d think not – how about you point out the good!!!

I think this segment is a cheap shot at NBC. It looks especially stupid since NBC already aired their episode regarding Murphy DA’s accusation on Wednesday, and had an actual Texas state assistant DA to say that everything they did on the show was legal, and he didn’t understand why the Murphy DA wouldn’t prosecute (yes, that guy is only a Murphy DA, not a Texas state DA as 20/20 claimed throughout the show). I used to love 20/20, but I lost my complete respect with this segment. This is not good news reporting, but rather a cheap shot at a competitor’s very successful (and excellent) series, and it only makes 20/20 look stupid. NBC did what they need to make the series into a good successful story, and bring attention to a very critical issue. Kudos to NBC, shame on you ABC!

The Murphy County DA has no guts with prosecuting any of the accused offenders. No one forced these alleged pedophiles into the set – up home, and no Hanson did not violate their Amendment right to Miranda by questioning them because they were able to leave at any point hence not being in custody. Not to mention, the statements made to Hansen were not required for prosecution anyhow, only the internet chat log and the mere fact that the alleged violators freely came to the set – up house for what they thought was a sexual encounter with a juvenile was needed. ABC is merely trying to cash in with their series on the Dateline series that was obviously so successful and the Murphy County DA is full of poppy cock with its rationale for refusing to prosecute. I would welcome any such sting in my neighborhood for at least to weed out the true predators in our society. This is what the DA and ABC seem to be ignoring.

Unfortunately I think that the reason you would run such a story is because your network didn’t come up with the idea. My walk-away from your story is that you will defend child predators. That’s disgusting!

Collin County District Attorney John Roach should be APPLAUDED.
I would like to remind the posters who are “outraged” that the charges were dropped or that NBC is doing a “public service” of a little something called: THE FOURTH AMENDMENT.
We have rights in this country, protected by the Constitution.
Thank you Mr. Roach.

I am disappointed, however not surprised by your “investigation” into the to catch a predator show. This is yet another example of how the law has tried to accommodate everyone, but has served no one.
Everyone knows that a criminal rarely recieves the maximum penalty for his/her crime, even when the crime committed is as obvious as this. I get disgusted when I see repeat offenders or serious offenders get away with a slap on the wrist. To Catch a Predator has given serious offenders a punishment to last a lifetime. All can say to NBC is job well done, and to ABC shame on you for your poorly thought out ratings scam.

ABC should be ashamed! This is not about news, it’s about ratings. The success of NBC’s Dateline in this area makes it your target, not justice. Add a DA and a few police officers who are looking for attention and there you have it, 20/20. What a joke. You totally miss the point of deterrence. I applaud NBC and PJ for doing what they can to bring this to light and to shine it as brightly as possible.

Conradt was suspected of deleting edvidence.. and Conradt’s sister sueing… maybe she didn’t know her brother. Calling Perverted Justice vigilantes … just because they are doing something that more people should do… protect kids while online. Maybe this will open parent’s eyes… Parents talk to their kids about not talking to strangers… but kids talk to strangers all the time while online.. their neighborhood is now global.

Why are you protecting these criminals. Do you expect me to belive this is about the law. Who and what are you protecting here. These people are sick and they need to be exposed not protected. Poor choice in reporting here very poor choice. The only people that are breathing a breath of hope here are the criminals. Please Apologize to the public for your poor choice of reporting.

ABC’s 20/20 just aired in my time zone. I was so mortified that they were having a show of this nature that I immediately turned the channel. I am disgusted with ABC for promoting not putting these predators on blast. Child predators do not deserve any privacy.
Done with ABC

I am a federal law enforcement officer and I totally support NBC’s Dateline and the folks at Perverted Justice. Their efforts in identifying these child predators should be applauded, not ridiculed by other media. District Attorney John Roach’s decision to let these criminals go and his derogatory public statements about NBC Dateline are not only despicable, they should raise concern and anger in anyone who hears them. He’s a disgrace to the justice system and he should be investigated for these actions. As for Conradt’s family, while nobody should rejoice in another man’s suicide, the facts are the facts. He was engaging in perverse activity with minors. He chose to take his own life to obviously avoid the embarassment of what he was going to face. His family should move on and not allow his criminal actions be brought more to light than they already are now. My family and I regularly watch “To Catch a Predator.” It’s not “perverse T.V.” as some of your commentors have suggested and they are not “exploiting criminals.” They’re identifying some of societies worst criminals and showing families what can happen when kids surf the Internet.

I think Chris Hansen and NBC are heroes. If the people they interviewed online and lured to the house were not planning on harming the children, then they would not be doing what they know is against the law. These people are sick and if the people that do not like what NBC is doing had their own child harmed, they would certainly have a change in opinion. ABC obviously has a bone to pick because of the popularity of the show and the ratings they have lost because of it. I will certainly think twice before watching 20/20 or ABC ever again. The people need to take back the court system away from the lawyers so these people can be put away so our children can safely walk the sidewalks and play outside again.

Listen up everyone who feels bad for the pedophile… he SHOULDN’T have done it! What is wrong with you people? The only thing that is really upsetting about this whole situation is that the guy killed himself.
It shouldn’t have been that easy for him… he should have just been castrated. That should be the fate of every pedophile, if you can’t use it correctly, you don’t need it. I really hope nothing happens to NBC because it’s not their fault the guy commited suicide. It’s his fear of being labelled a pedophile for the rest of his pathetic life that made him commit suicide.

If ABC producers; along with Brian Ross, intentionally and voluntarilty defend and appoligize for PERVERTS…. Then questioning your personal proclivities are fair game.

I think ABC is missing the point. Everday children in this country are being exploited. I commend Dateline for
taking a stand on on issue that is constantly being pushed under the rug until a child is killed. It sounds like you are saying a pedophile that happens to be a D.A. life is more important then the saftey of our children. The fact is if we do not expose these pedophiles then they will continue to ruin our children’s lives. The police cannot possibly find and apprehend the multitude of pedophiles that stalk and destroy our children. For law enforcement and ABC to denounce any progress made in deminishing the occurence of pedophilla is reprehensible. Egos and ratings should have no place in protecting the children form these sick animals. We should expose them regardless of their public status. I guess law enforcement and ABC would rather tell the story to the parent after their child is missing and a big manhunt insues.
GREAT JOB DATELINE NBC.

Regardless if it was your next door neighbor, a law enforcement officer, a politician, or a priest, Perverted Justice and To Catch Predator’s Chris Hanson are providing a service that works hand in hand with local law enforcement. And I believe they should keep up the good work. They didn’t take his life, HE chose to take his own life after he realized he had been caught.

Are you kidding me? People are actually defending this DA in Texas, saying Dateline is wrong in what they’re doing. When are you people going to wake up? What if this was your child who was being hunted by a sexual predator? And, the fact that ABC is supporting this by broadcasting it on 20/20 is absolutely despising. I pray that it never happens to your children. Obviously, if you support this alleged “wrongdoing”, you either don’t have kids or you’re under the “it won’t happen to me” influence. Dateline NBC, keep up the good work.

I think what they do in the “To Catch a Predator” series is a good thing. I can’t believe that it’s being looked at in a negative way. They are catching people that I’d rather not be on the streets. Maybe some people know it’s only a matter of time before they are caught, and want to cause problems where there really aren’t any. I hope Chris Hansen and the crew are able to continue the good work.

Ok I do agree to a point that you shouldn’t even advertise this stuff on TV….However if you think about all of the children who are molested by men or women…then why not put them on TV and let them be known to the world so when do get off skott free like they did this evening on TV then we can protect our children from these people!!!! I do not agree with how things were done but we do need better protection for our children….and we do need to have a way to keep these people off of the streets and make it known that we will not tolerate it….I am a mother of two and if anyone would hurt my kids I would put them in prison and stay there!!! DON’T BLAME THIS JUST ON THE TV AND A NEWS COMPANY ….IT NEEDS TO BE BLAMED ON THE PREDATORS THAT WE HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR …IF WE DIDN’T HAVE THESE PEOPLE ON THE STREETS THEN THIS WOULDN’T EVEN BE AN ISSUE!!!! SO LETS PRAY THAT WE CAN ALL AGREE AS ONE AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!!!

Alex wrote: “To Catch A Predator is a worthwhile program to deter pedophiles from interacting with children”
WHAT? Have you not SEEN the show? Most of these men are not only familiar with the show – they have also questioned whether or not they were heading into a sting – and went anyway.
The show is NOT A DETERRENCE.

ABC should be ashamed. This entire “expose” is a complete farce of reality. The Catch a Predator series is of great public service because it informs parents and the dangers that the Internet can pose for their children. Who knows how many thousands of parent/child conversations the Dateline series has promted. Conversations that have taught children the real dangers of Internet predators. And then there is the flipside, perhaps would-be predators have been discouraged by the series. And that Assistant DA that shot himself. He exposed himself in pictures to someone he thought was 13. When do you expect the police to arrest him? After he exposes himself to countless other children? And as for the cameras, I don’t think pedifiles are due any more privacy than ABC’s Nigeria 419 scammers. It’s just plain silly. ABC News is the absolute worst. What hipocrisy!!!

A little jealousy perhaps? You wish you had a hit like that, don’t you? You network airs “Desperate Housewives” which is a bigger perversion of societal values that dramatizing a sting. Maybe you should feel for the innocent children who are the victims and scarred for life.

I think it is really sad when we as Americans start feeling bad for the predators instead of the victims. It is human nature to blame someone else for another person’s actions. However in this case, here are the facts: (1) If the deceased was one of the other hundreds of predators “caught” on or off tape, it would be another pedafile off of our streets. (2) The deceased and he only decided to chatted with the minor, while posing as a teenager himself. (3) If the deceased didn’t knowingly do anything wrong, then why not “face” the charges and have a jury of his piers find him guilty or not guilty. If he was cleared but had to get another job, move, etc…, he would still be ok. It is easy to play the blame game, but when do you we start to take responsibility for our actions and not blame others for the consequences that you have to face after the fact.

I’m not saying that maybe there wasn’t a little too much hollywood involved in these shows and they could and should have been more careful to preserve the integrity of the investigation. That being said, even though I couldn’t stomach TCAP, I was very grateful that they did the shows. If nothing else they made these individuals think before they started stalking online, “who am I really talking to?”
I think that ABC is just trying to shoot down a popular show to boost their own ratings and the truth is all it did was make me not want to watch 20/20 anymore. Not once were hard questions asked of the DA or anyone else involved. It was a self serving episode designed to kill another networks show. Not once was it mentioned that maybe, just maybe, Dateline was doing society a great service. I’m very disappointed in 20/20. Oh, and as far as that ADA commiting suicide, why didn’t they mention that he had kiddie porn on his computer, afraid it wouldn’t be such a sympathetic story perhaps?

I get the impression from the story this evening that Brian Ross was trying to attack NBC. Such a disappointment. I’m sure ABC has always done their stories above board and by the book.
If “Preditor” can get these people off the streets, more power to them. If one of the suspects is an attorney, I’m sure the embarassment was more than he could handle, and the suicide is the end result. What about what he did to a child? Does that not count? The end result to a child is a lifetime of injury – mentally and physically. Let’s not forget the children!

I am shocked and outraged by 20/20 critizing the Dateline “To Catch A Predator ” series.Frankly ABC is probably jealous that it didn’t do it first!Yes NBC is exploiting this series for all its worth, just like ABC, and all the other networks do!TV JOURNALISM HAS NO MORALITY, NO MATTER WHAT NETWORK IS DOING THE EXPLOITATION! THE TEXAS STATES ATTORNEY IS ANGRY BECAUSE ONE OF HIS MAJOR PROSECUTERS WAS A BLATANT PERVERT AND HE DIDN’T KNOW IT!NBC, despite the blatant exploitation has done a great service to milliions of parents who were so naive about what goes on online with their children.ABC criticizing NBC is simply a case of “the pot calling the kettle black”!

I think it’s ridiculous that your program defends child predators. Attacking Dateline is inexcusable. And if that was my brother that shot himself because he was a pedophile, then I would be ashamed and I sure would not be defending him. I do not have children yet, but when I do I hope that programs like you would not defend predators like these!

I’m outraged by 20/20′s show today. I am a 45 year old woman that was molested when I was 5 years old, and I guess a lot of you guys at acb have not experience the horror of something like this. As far as I am concern, those sick people need to be wiped out from the face of the earth. I aplaude Dateline and Chris Hansen for the good job they are doing.

Dateline is doing a great job! These people going after children are perverts. It doesn’t matter how they are catching them as long as they are getting them further away from my children. If it was my husband I wouldn’t care how humiliated he would look on tv or what they had to do to catch him. We all know that being sexual with a minor is not only illegal it is disgusting!! Sorry for the guy who killed himself but they had evidence before and found more afterward, so his family should let it be. They are only shaming him more by bringing out the whole truth of what a pervert he was. It doesn’t matter how much we teach out children to stay away from these perverts, kids are still young and vulnerable, say the right things and even the smartest and strongest children will be curious. And you never know it could be yours!!

“Under Texas law, an alleged predator doesn’t even have to show up for the meet”.
Way to shoot yourselves in the foot. Yes, they could have met Conradt the next day, but they thought he was destroying evidence.
And, by the way, OH MY GOD THEY DON’T HAVE TO SHOW UP FOR THE MEET.
So why aren’t all these men being prosecuted, exactly? There is no reason; it’s a felony in Texas to even talk sexually to someone you believe to be a child online.
Nice work, Collin County D.A. I hope you like being unemployed, you incompetent wizard.

I can’t believe that ABC supports child molestor’s rights. ABC claims NBC was just out for ratings, as if ABC isn’t doing this for ratings. At least NBC was protecting children, is ABC protecting pedophiles now?

ABC News needs to get their facts straight Dateline NBC is doing great work. They have been credited with many arrests and even making new laws. Also the District Attorney who killed himself – He killed himself, he had numerous amounts of child porn on his personal computer, and had no knowledge NBC cameras where with police. As far as I’m concerned I will continue watching Dateline NBC and ABC News needs to get rid of Brian Ross!

You guys are not realizing what these people are doing. They are removing individuals that are hurting children. Why does it matter that they didn’t do it in the traditional sense. Apprently, the “traditinal” sense is not working. I bet if it was your child, no one will have an issue.

ABC should be ashamed of themselves.

NBC was going for rating and that is their job. What exactly are you doing. Defending the predators or going after your rivals. You just lost a viewer forever.

I live in Dallas, Texas. ABC does not have all the facts in this case. Should we be sad that a pedophile took his life? I think not. It is one less person we have to house in our prison system, since pedophiles have yet to get the death penalty. In my personal politics I am a liberal, but when it comes to this kind of criminal I am a conservative. They don’t even deserve the death penalty via lethal injection. That is too easy on them. They should be put to death in the most painful manner that equals the pain they inflicted upon a child. That said, if ABC had been the original news organization to report and therefore expose this situation, and had the same outcome occured, some other news organization would have done the same to them. Let’s face it this is ABC’s way of trying to one up NBC. Why don’t we all quit making this a political/news issue and look at it for what it is. No matter how, what, when or where a pedophile is exposed and stopped, whomever does it should be commended. Yes, Perverted Justice and NBC have been criticized for their sometimes extreme and over the top methods. But in a time when this type of sickness permeates almost all apsects of each our lives, don’t we need extreme measures to exterminate it?
If Conradt was innocent, would he have taken his life? Why should law enforcement and the local judicial system be made to feel guilty, when an obvious guilty personn took their own life? They did there job to the best of their ability. Right or wrong, as to how it went down, in the end ONE LESS CHILD PREDATOR IS ON OUR STREETS.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ABC!!!!! WE WERE HOPING SOMEONE WOULD GET ON TO THIS STORY!!! From the beginning it seemed like the “predators” were lured, and excessively so!! Talk about a scarlett letter branding AND having to prove your innocence against an over zealous and commanding Piper of a NETWORK and an unknowing Mousey CITY. To Catch a Predator WAS AN ABSURD, ENTIRELY UNAMERICAN AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SHOW. THANKS ABC FOR COVERING THIS!!!!

Too bad Nifong got disbarred. Roach Nifong LLP could be a real legal powerhouse huh, ABC? You could team up and free child molesters all over the country. Think of the ratings!

ABC — GOOD FOR YOU FOR PROVIDING ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE. THOSE PREDATOR WATCHERS ARE PRETTY SICK THEMSELVES TO BE WATCHING OTHER PEDOPHILES ON TV. TALK ABOUT HYPOCRITES AND PEDOPHILES! WHAT A JOKE THEY ARE.

Why would ABC go after another network for exposing pedophiles? Are you jealous because NBC is doing a great service to American children and their families by pursuing these monsters and you wish you were? Maybe you should be doing something more investigative than attacking a competitive station. Did the district attorney who shot himself do so because he was caught and couldn’t face it? If he was innocent, I highly doubt he would have done it. As sad as it is for his family, I wonder how many children and their families were spared the horrors of such abuse and years of having to live with it? Could Roach be a pedophile? Is that why he has chosen NOT to prosecute any one who came to the house and yet is so against what the police, Dateline and Chris Hansen are doing? Pedophilia needs to be exposed and stopped. It occurs far too often and hurts far too many. You, ABC should be ashamed of yourselves for not having a better story to investigate, especially when there are so many things going on in this world. Next you’ll be investigating why Katie Kouric went to Iraq! Maybe you need new producers with some new ideas if you want to win the ratings war.

When 20/20 can’t get ratings they go after NBC? And what series do they have again? Oh ya that ridiculous series that showed a brother and sister kissing! That’s get journalism!!!! Keep it on ABC News!

I am agast at 20/20, it is unbelievable how low you have went. I always enjoyed
your show, but to night I was disgusted at your outright jealousey and bitterness toward a show that has been successful. I don’t plan to watch anymore. The man killed himself because he was about to be exposed. He must of been a predator, or why would he kill himself.
I am so disappointed in your show!
There is so much more wrong in the world that you could of went for.

20/20…wow, if someone had only seen your show on this subject, you would have been convinced that Dateline was the criminal. Your story was so incredibly one sided that I am now calling into question all the other stories on 20/20. I am truly interested in what you are withholding from those stories as well. You barely mentioned the hundreds of other successful prosecutions in other states by multiple (as in more than 10) other police departments and DA’s. Not ONE of them had any problems. Yet, your story spent 99% of the time talking about Texas and giving the false belief that how this one DA felt is the norm instead of the exception.
Finally, you actually tried to build a sympathetic case for the sister of Conradt. Conradt shot himself b/c he was going to be arrested for his crimes. That fact Dateline was there with cameras and encouraged the arrest (if that is in fact what happened…unfortunately, who really knows what is true in your story) is irrelevant. I didn’t know that people who commit felonies should be arrested with dignity…esp. felonies against kids. Conradt sister is sueing Dateline b/c they encouraged the arrest of a pedophile. WHAT??? So, if the police arrest a CRIMINAL and the CRIMINAL commits suicide, it is someone elses fault???? Tell his sister that only person she needs to blame is her brother. See…innocent people don’t commit suicide to hide their crimes. HINT, HINT.
20/20…you crossed the line. Consider your news and 20/20 boycotted.
(p.s. Take a look at the other posts…70% are pro dateline. Sounds like 20/20 is jealous they aren’t Dateline. You have confirmed you are second tier when compared to Dateline)

I’m sorry, but I have never seen such a pathetic program as the 20/20 episode attempting to discredit To Catch a Predator. The fact that almost every pervert who tries to seduce a minor must be thinking that they may end up on national television has to be an extremely effective deterrent to this type of behavior. I do not recall a more positive impact that one television program has had, particularly with respect to protecting children. The fact that a Texas prosecutor could not secure convictions with such clear evidence is simply unbelivable. This segment was disappointing. I hope that all the networks will follow Dateline’s lead in producing responsible and effective programming.

I guess 20/20 agrees with child predictors!!! That was the most ridiculous show I have ever seen! oh and by the way, if someone killed himself because the media was outside, he obvious was guilty, maybe of much more then we know….so his sister needs to stop trying to make money off his death! it was a choice to talk to a boy and it was a choice to kill himself, why slander dateline? you guys should be ashamed. They have way more to pick on you for! I will definitely speed the word of this ridiculous report when their are more important issues in the world, like the war. Good luck!

Conradt obviously was a long time pedophile with many issues, where was his sister then?

20/20, not getting very good reviews on this show. This has got to be a first for you, Brian Ross. If there was a point to this ‘story’ you better start explaining it. Looks like most of us out here just don’t like pedophiles. Go figure!

ABC News has acted irresponsibly in airing this segment. I agree with those who suggest ABC is jealous that they didn’t come up with the idea for “To Catch A Predator” and is riding the coattails of its success to gain ratings. Ultimately, the choice to take one’s life is by definition up to that individual. Instead of suing NBC, et al. perhaps the sister of the suicidal ADA should apologize for her brother’s acts which have ruined the lives and innocence of countless children. It was an act of cowardice and another example from today’s society of someone not wanting to take responsibility his actions. Furthermore, I think using the term “vigilante” to describe PJ and other watchdog organizations is also irresponsible. Their actions are bringing internet crimes to light and providing a service to the communities where they are active. This medium provides some level of anonymity, but eventually, with or without NBC cameras rolling, some of these crimes will be perpetrated face-to-face with their victims, many times with consequences far more reaching and longer lasting than that of a bullet ending a life. If ABC wants to get in on the internet predator “sensationalism” how about providing therapy for and following the recovery of one of these predators’ young victims?

Every person on that has posted comments regarding this story that agrees with me that the To Catch A Predator show is one of the best shows on TV please flood the Queens College in NY College where Mr. Mankoff is employed as a sociologist letting them know that we will not tolerate them employing and allowing someone like Mr. Mankoff to teach our children that Sexual Predators are their friends. I don’t know where the hell this man gets his information and to tell you the truth I really don’t give a damn but I’m sure the parents of Jessica Lunsford, Polly Glass, Danielle VanDam, Samantha Runion would be more than glad to meet with him and give him the facts. This idiot is a disgrace and should not be allowed around children and spewing his sick, pathetic excuses for these sick lowlifes.
ATTENTION: QUEENS COLLEGE OF NY ADMINISTRATORS IT IS TIME FOR MR. MUNSOFF TO GO.
I would like to see Mr. Munsoff to provide one case where a convicted Child Predator has been reformed. PLEASE JUST ONE.

I’m a resident of Murphy and I’ve seen first hand what Perverted Justice did in our community.
They swarmed our local Web forum and made horrible personal attacks on people who opposed the sting. The owner of the forum was forced to shut it down for several days, suppressing citizen discussion about an important local issue. On their own forum, Perverted Justice members routinely say they believe people who oppose them, such as the Mayor of our town and the Collin County District Attorney, should be “investigated” (by them) as likely pedophiles. At one time they talked about raising money to fund recall campaigns against local politicians who voiced their concerns. On many occasions they have literally crowed about the Condradt death as if it were something to celebrate. These people are blinded by their own cause and inflated by their own arrogance. You would not want them involved in your community.
Much worse, in my view, is the outright lie that your report contains, from none other than our own Police Chief. He was interviewed unexpectedly by your camera crew, outside City Hall in August just before a council meeting. You asked him where his department obtained Conradt’s phone number on the day of his death, and he replied “I don’t recall, probably from the local department.” Seconds later your report shows him on camera in a group of people including Hansen, while a member of the Dateline or Perverted-Justice group dictates the number in his hearing.
20/20 has every reason to raise the concerns it has, and I want to thank you for doing the citizens of Murphy a service. I’m a little disappointed, however, that much still remains to be told.

My husband and I watched the program tonight and were absolutely appalled at ABC’s report. It seems to me that we have a lot of egos getting in the way of catching and convicting these pedophiles. ( DA, police, and obviously ABC ) As a mother , I am grateful to Dateline and Chris Hansen for helping to rid my neighborhood and our society of these sick individuals. As was stated in a previous blog: “A PEDOPHILE IS A PEDOPHILE IS A PEDOPHILE!” I will continue to support Dateline and Chris Hansen by tuning in each and every time the shows airs!

How can we label someone who preys on children a victim? How can evidence of possession of child pornography not matter in a case against a predator? How can our “justice” system set free several guilty criminals who endanger our children?
I am disgusted by the idea that we seem more interested in protecting these sick perverts than we are the hundreds of children who are victimized, raped, kidnapped, and murdered every year to satisfy some sicko’s sexual fantasies. We would rather have them on the streets, continuing their crimes, because some can’t stand the thought that they were arrested on camera, or, God forbid, made to feel shame for what they did?
I am so tired of the “everyone deserves a second chance” mentality. Let’s give Bin Laden a second chance. Let’s give Manson a second chance. At what point do we say enough is enough and stop giving rights to the people who feel free to take those rights from innocent children who can’t defend themselves? At what point do we draw the line and say that a pedophile is no different from a murderer who takes the innocence and souls of the people they victimize?
I am grateful for the courage and determination of Chris Hansen and NBC. THEY had the guts to do something.

Alex says that the recidivism rate on sexual crime is low, but in reality the rate for pedophiles is one of the highest. This is not shoplifting! Every sexual act against a child is one child’s life ruined!
The Perverted-justice group is very careful with the evidence as has been proven every time one of these predators computer hard drives been searched. All of the other jurisdictions have had no problems getting convictions through these stings, why should this DA? Either he is incompetent or has a secret that he wants to keep hidden.
As for the reason that the cops have their guns drawn… Remember that Texas is a very gun friendly state where guns are as common as potato chips. The ADA who offed himself had one.. when one of these predators is cornered like a rat, they could very well become dangerous and attempt to shoot their way out. These guys are all being accused of felonies, all felony arrests are made at gunpoint. Don’t believe me, ask your local street cop.
20/20 just wishes they had done the story first, god knows they have no talent or ideas of their own. Their ratings are also embarrassing.

I have two children of my own, so therefore, I feel the program was an excellent idea. Why are we, as Americans, more concerned about the rights of the predators instead of the rights of our children. People are analizing the sting operations to figure out what the police department and NBC have done wrong instead of protecting my children. It is obvious, from the shows, that these people had every intention of doing something that would be unthinkable. If I am not mistaking, I am pretty sure I heard that everyone of these perverts got off some how. Is this it? Is this how it is all going to end? Am I the only one thankful that these perverts have to face their shame with their faces plactured all over the TV.

Well ABC i just registered on your website to say a few things then I will be done with you! Some of these wonderful people ahead of me have hit the nail on the head about you. You have just tried to get a leg up on the ladder before NBC starts a new season. Personally, I love what this dateline show does. I like the idea of these morons being exposed from different angles with cameras. Eventually these crimimals will be back on the street and people who might have been watching the show will have an idea of who they need to watch out for!!! I think it is nice to have a face to be watching out for when it comes to my little girl and I would hope that you people who are against NBC’s Show will realize that you need to think the same way if not wake up! I will from this point never watch another ABC show which is disheartening b/c I have watched many. I do agree w/another viewer that the only reason this poor assistant DA committed suicide was b/c of guilt. I think it is sad he did that but he CHOSE that path for himself. The police officers involved that have quit their job shame on you! You did something good getting predetors off the street. There should be no shame there! If your department is like most departments there is a understaff problem and people without the knowledge of the internet and knowledge of what to look for. Hold your head high get your job back and rock on! The District Attorney needs to be the one to resign and hang his head in shame. He just released these crimally, mentally ill, child molestors back on the street. So all you who are so against NBC’s program and so happy to agree with this crap from ABC watch out. Your daughter or son may be next. Your child may not be as lucky. They will fall prey without a “sting” being in place and they are like wild game being hunted. THANKYOU NBC YOU HAVE MY FAMILY’S LOYALTY. THANK YOU PERVERTED JUSTICE. THANK YOU CHRIS HANSON I WILL BE EMAILING OR BLOGGING YOU MY FULL SUPPORT. GOODBYE ABC AND ALL YOUR JUNK!!!!!!!! I HOPE TO CATCH A PREDATOR DATELINE WILL COME TO MY HOME TOWN ALSO KNOWN AS A MURPHY AND DO A SHOW. LET’S GET THESE PERVERTS OFF OUR STREET!

I am appauled that ABC would take a stab at NBC for their “To Catch a Predator” show. They have caught hundreds of child predators. What is wrong with the justice system in this country when we are defending the predators? These sickos should have no rights. They choose to give up those rights when they pursued a minor in a sexual nature. The Assistant District Attorney knew he had been caught and he felt cornered. This sting operation could have had the same outcome even if the media had not been there. I think we are forgetting that this man shot himself (he is not a victim). The only reason the sister of the deceased man is sueing NBC and not the police department is to get as much money as possible. Watching this report tonight only made me angry that ABC is using this controversy as a forum to take a stab at the competition.

As a mother, I applaud Dateline NBC for the work they did to bring awareness concerning sexual predators. I had no idea how common the problem of sexual predators is and think Dateline NBC did a great job of letting parents know what is happening and what they can do to protect their children. ABC should be ashamed for trying to bring down the competition (NBC) in what can only be described as “sour grapes”.
As far as Conrad (DA who took his life) is concerned, he was a grown man who took the cowardly way out instead of facing responsibilities for his actions. He alone is responsible for taking his life. The children that he had pornographic pictures of are the true victims…not the sister who is suing for money.
The district attorney John Roach, Conrad’s sister, and ABC should be embarassed by their actions. They are forgetting about the true victims…the children who are preyed upon. I had respect for Brian Ross before this story and enjoyed watching 20/20 in the past…not anymore. Shame on you all!

If 20/20 wanted to do the real story, they would have interviewed attorneys that actually tried the cases. Several cases in Riverside County have gone to trial and several charges have been dismissed due to bad evidence.
The jurisdictional problems in Texas were that neither the suspects nor the decoys were located in the county where the arrest took place. The warrants served on Conradt were defective. His case would have been tossed out too.
I think people calling someone a criminal when the prosecutor couldn’t prove the case are living in the wrong country. Perhaps they should go back to 1970s U.S.S.R. Our Constitution gives us the right to have a trial where the state has to prove our guilt on the basis of solid evidence before sending us to prison. Not shoddy evidence manufactured by a bunch of vigilantes that are bent on revenge and a television show that makes big bucks off advertising to a voyeristic audience.

I am a law enforcement investigator in the mid-west. My department was specifically and repeatedly pressured by the Perverted Justice people as well as the local NBC affiliate. I argued over and over again that these tactics would only serve to embarrass people in an attempt to glorify the image of a law enforcement agency. Utilizing the media to conduct investigations that are this complicated and serious only serves to pressure police to perform quickly and to cut corners to get the “Big Story” out. Cutting corners usually results in cases not being filed, embarrassment, and most importantly failure to serve the crime victim. In addition, the law in my area does not allow the use of non law enforcement personnel to act in the deceptive position that the PJ staff did. While I am an advocate for the protection of children, I have always felt that the NBC / PJ / Law Enforcement relationship was very shallow and minimizing to those who are victims of these crimes as well as to those who spend their lives properly pursuing these criminals. I am surprised that the participating Law Enforcement agencies did not recognize the “Red Flags” with Perverted Justice early on. Commentaries posted on the PJ web site by the PJ staff were provocative, foul, and antagonistic. This organization, good intentions aside, should have developed a professional and mature presentation to avoid the skepticism that most law enforcement agencies apparently had with them. I must believe that most all involved started with good intentions, for that they should not be criticized. The criticism should be focused on the lacking ability to remember who they were working for. Thank you for bringing this story to the public. This should be an example for those people who confuse TV police drama with what it really takes to get the job done right.

I am very dissapointed in 20/20 and the DA that dropped all the cases against these dispicable men. The state of Texas clearly has a law stating that they dont even have to show up they only have to contact over the internet and it is a crime yet the charges were dropped against these people. I dont understand most of the people on the show saying they do not agree with the way these were handled. WEll let their children be contacted by one of these criminals and see how fast they change their tune. I am glad that all of those mens faces were shown on TV nationally and do I care if it ruined their lives? Not at all, how about the lives of children they have ruined. Do i care that a coward took the easy way out and killed himself? No, he did the crime and should have done the time and shame on his Family for trying to lay blame at somebody elses door. She should be ashamed of herself.

The main purpose of the Dateline show was to make the public / parents aware of the magnitude of the problem of child web predators. Dateline’s first show had no arrests! It was public out cry that demanded police involvement from that point onto present! Brian Ross and 20/20 should be ashamed at their excuse of trying to get ratings for their failing show by riding on the coat tails of Dateline.

i don’t think NBC did anything wrong, and i don’t think they should be held accountable for that man killing himself after all he engaged in the sexual solicitation of a child. and i think his sister is trying to bring the focus off what her brother was doing and trying to say her brother was a victim of a TV show sting but her brother knew what he had did wrong and that is why he killed himself. he just didn’t want to face justice also have to say shame on you 20/20 for trying to say that what NBC did was wrong. i am a mother of 2 and a justice studies Major applaud what Chris Hanson was trying to do and to show America how wide spread these people are and that they come from all walks of life and in your show you failed to mention that some of these guys arrested were already convicted sexual offenders.

Darlene wrote:
WHAT? Have you not SEEN the show? Most of these men are not only familiar with the show – they have also questioned whether or not they were heading into a sting – and went anyway.
To Darlene – exactly, you have emphasized the point. Recidivism. These men are dangerous, and Dateline is exposing them and stopping them.
If it was not Dateline meeting them – it might have been a real child they went to meet.

I think its pretty bad for ABC to do this story about to catch a predator…Dateline is at least trying to help stop child predators and informing parents what is going on out there…Never heard of such things until NBC showed these shows….What is ABC doing? I mean really give me a break, because of Dateline this man committed sucide..in my mind he knew what was going to come out….no pity …

I was very disappointed in your so called ‘reporting’ on the “To Catch a Predator” series. You come across as defending these perverts just to make NBC look bad. It feels more like a network vs. another network rather than a real news worthy story. One rich, well to do, important person was caught doing something horribly wrong and happened to kill himself before he was arrested and now it’s a BIG story. It makes me wonder Why? It makes me wonder if ABC is getting something out of this? Maybe NBC should do a story about that? I’ll never watch 20/20, Nightline, or any other ABC News show until something is done to make up for this absolutely pathetic report.

I have never felt the need to respond to anything I have ever seen on TV before but I am so LIVID about this segment. The smug satisfaction this network has shown in shaking their finger at a competitor is nothing but a joke–And, to do it at children’s expense, is beyond tasteless. I mean did it never dawn on them that because they are in competition with NBC that their motivation could not, should not, help but be questioned? I am a long-time viewer of 20/20 but I will never watch this program again. And, I truly feel sorry for the sister of the man who shot himself but I shed not one tear for him…I cry for the child he no doubt victimized before he CHOSE to take his own life.

I have a blog where I have a feature I occasionally run called Sex Offender of the Day. Last year a group called Roar for Freedom and another group SO Hopeful complained to my hosting company because I was making the community aware of child molesters, with a focus on those working in retail establishments and living in campgrounds etc.
They had my blog taken down. It’s now back up, but they claimed I was inciting vigilantism and bombarded the hosting company with thousands of emails. Being spineless, the host took down my blog. I know host it myself.
The intent of these two groups is to appeal Megan’s Law, which requires registries of sex offenders in each state. They are sick people and the recidivism rate is amongst the highest of any crime.
Hat’s off to Chris Hansen and Dateline. The internet is the child molesters trolling ground and Dateline is making them aware that *someone* is watching.

As one who lives in Collin County (where the city of Murphy is located), I just want to say that the DA is the District Attorney for Collin County, he’s not the “Murphy DA” or the “Murphy County DA” and he IS a Texas state DA – just wanted to throw that out there…the rest of my thoughts on the matter are no one else’s business but mine, but just wanted to correct some misinformation from the posters here

ABC has lost credibility in my book by slamming the Dateline series on catching pedifiles. I think they did a service to the community. The police do not have the man power to go after these vermin and when someone else does you question them? I think the DA should be tossed out on his ear for not procecuting them to the fullest. And as for the sister that is filing a suit against Dateline for supposedly causing her brothers death-give me a break. Has she thought about maybe they have saved the lives of many kids that he could have ruined their lives.
It seems that all of our laws are written to protect the guilty anymore. I say-put all of those sickos on a deserted island and also the ones that defend them and let them abuse each other for the rest of their lives..

How dare you run a show on how wrong “To catch a a predator” is, if they hadn’t caught these guys they could have been meeting up with my young daughter or son at that time. I can’t believe you, finally someone tries to bring these predators to the public eye and you try and make the good guys look bad…SHAME ON YOU! With all these other shows out there that exploit people and this the one you want to pick apart…ABC, Thanks for showing how much you care about our young girls and boys by defending the predators.

Thank you 20/20 for showing us americans how our justice system is BROKEN and my congratulations goes out to the prosecuter who helped those 20 men go free good job. Now we see were our justice system is really broken! I am not crazy about the show but I am behind them 100% on catching these perverts they should not be on the street and they do deserve to be humiliated on national TV. who cares about the fine print on what the police did or did not do! They got caught with there hands in the dirt they should be in jail. The police should not be getting investigated this is obsured! we need to put a stop on these prosecuters who are not doing whats in the BEST interest of the society or the community.

Looks like ABC is riding the coat tail of NBC’s public awareness programs. But then the Murphy prosecutor says not at all seeking media attention. Hmmm. Is he using ABC?
It is obvious that the police were in charge. What difference did it make that Chris had the telephone number? It was the police officer who made the phone call. The assistant prosecutor is not the first pedophile to committ suicide when discovered. He knew what he had done. The news media would have picked up the story if he had been arrested; regardless of where he was arrested.
I expected some stronger evidence against NBC, but ABC had a weak case but for some reason decided to go ahead and show it. NBC wins this one by a landslide.

I for one am grateful for people like Chris Hansen from NBC. It is people like him that make a difference in our pathetic country that is going downhill fast. So what if the cops get a little fame out of it. Does anyone really care as long as they are taking a pedophile off the streets for a short time. I feel that if the powers that be would do their jobs instead of trying to just look important, we may not need to broadcast these sick jerks all over TV.
I feel bad for the sister of the gentleman that killed himself but he never should have been involved in something like this in the first place.
He is a sick jerk just like the rest. I don’t understand how she thinks she should be able to sue NBC over this.
Get real America, How would any of us feel if it were one of our children? ourselves.

ABC and 20/20 should be ashamed of themselves. I wonder how they would feel if one of these released perverts would contact their child or grandchild.
Another case of the legal system
protecting the criminal and not the
innocent children. Perverted Justice and NBC are the only ones that have the
guts to go after these slime balls. As far as the Assistant District Attorney that killed himself, what a coward and an embarrassment to his family and profession. If his sister receives any money from this, she should donate it to the National Hotline for abused and neglected children. I applaud NBC, Perverted Justice and all the police agencies that have worked to put these sick creeps behind bars. It will be interestsing to see if anyone that was
released in Texas is caught again or even worse are able to contact a child and finish the job they inteded to do the first itme around. Hopefully they will not contact anyone that is a member of the ABC family. ABC, and the legal officails that spoke against the NBC Sting should be ashamed of themselves and start protecting the innocent and not the criminals.
I hope NBC will continue to go after these creeps and catch more scum in their trap. Keep up the good work NBC.
I think from the posts that your 20/20 story has failed and I am glad.
Judi

I was disgusted at the story that Brian Ross and ABC aired. It sure seemed as though the 20/20 report had plenty of sympathy for the pedophile who shot himself. Perhaps Mr. Ross and those who decided to do this story have never been molested by a pedophile. If so, you would spend your time applauding Chris Hanson and NBC for doing whatever it takes to get these evildoers away from society who steal the very innocent soul of the children that they attack. While I have some sympathy for the family of the man who committed suicide – it is more because they have to bear the shame of his perverted lifestyle rather than his suicide. My opinion is the world would be better off if all child molesters committed suicide.

No one likes pedophiles but there are rules that law enforcement must follow to have successful prosecutions. The ends do not justify the means and watching the outtakes you see Dateline is really driving the way these encounters happen. I’m a newspaper photographer I can not instruct the subject I’m photographing to perform in any manor that he or she would not do themselves, clearly Dateline was instructing law enforcement what they wanted and is actually paying for a group to set up the sting operation and that’s unethical. To say the ABC is jealous about an NBC show is just silly statements from people who really don’t know much about the media. The fact that ABC News took on this story about NBC News really took some guts because it not the normal roll for TV, usually newspapers and magazines play that watch dog roll. The fact is many people in the news media are very uncomfortable with what Dateline is doing because it appears they are running this sting operation even paying an outside group instead of following a police operation as they perform their duty their own way.When Chris Hansen is talking to a suspect is he in the roll of a journalist or agent of the police? The whole performance is really just for TV. We all want these people arrested but don’t let your emotions get the better of you, we need good police work not a TV farce. Look at America’s Most Wanted, they play by the rules letting the police operate the encounters. 20/20 just laid out the facts as given by the prosecutors and the police in Texas the story was very balanced and fair. Media should be allowed to cover police operations when they can but the police should be running the whole show not NBC.

to j carroll – the Perverted Justice people who work the stings are volunteers, they don’t get paid. And the only cases dismissed were these Murphy cases, and from what Dateline says that may change.

THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR YOUR BEHAVIOR…YOU OWE CHRIS HANSEN AND DATELINE A PUBLIC APOLOGY!! USE YOUR ENERGY TO ESTABLISH A WAY TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN YOURSELVES!!

How can a TV station be so ignorant? Ignorant to getting these perverts off the street, ignorant to taking pleasure in at least one smart TV station doing something right…hint, hint, hint ABC and 20/20, get a real job. And for that Collin County, Texas DA…where are your $%%% man? Are you from Texas? You are a shame to the State of Texas. What you have done is totally WRONG! You know that in reviewing cases, if necessary, you can find anything to discredit a case. Insufficient evidence? What do you want..them in the actually performing for you? You also know that the Murphy PD has been kissing your backside in this ordeal to get you to prosecute and you still refuse, why? Uh, do you need glasses? Are you so old you can’t make a rational decision? Who are you really protecting? What does it take to see that a criminal came to a house for a specific reason and it wasn’t for a birthday party or to sell magazines subscriptions? How much more evidence do you need? You made up your mind before the situation took place and it shows. Who cares if it is show business, it’s also the judicial business! Are you related to that Conradt in some fashion? Who in their innocent, professional, right mind sends a picture of their private parts to a 13 year old boy?
As for those two ex-police officers, what happened to fit and trim and could that tie be a little shorter? What were your roles in this? You blame everyone else but you are no longer working for the PD, right?… Were you in charge of this ordeal and screwed it up, just what were your official ranks and duties in this ordeal…such professional goat chasers? You are angry with the PD for their actions against you in this case and this is your vengeance, right?
As for the City Manager who ended up resigning…get your job back! You and the Police Chief did a service to your community! Now the disservice is that every pedophile knows they can reside in Collin County or even Murphy, TX without having a fear of prosecution. Also, what type of governmental entity would let anindividual resign on the basis of this programming…a weak and ill-fated bunch of characters I’d say!
ALL for the PD who wanted to get these sick-minded, child chasing individuals off the streets. MURPHY, TX…BRAVO, DATELINE…BRAVO!!!

Perverted Justice does an awesome job. If you have ever gone to their website you can read the chat logs that they have had with sexual predators. The chat logs are disgusting but Perverted Justice DOES NOT entrap these people that troll the internet for sex with young people. If law enforcement agencies took a few lessons from the people who work at Perverted Justice, I suspect the number of convictions of sexual predators would go up. As far as Mr. Roach goes, if he is not in the business of show business then why did he agree to appear on 20/20? He should be disbarred for his actions. I am also very disappointed with Brian Ross as well as ABC. I used to respect your work–but this truly makes me question what your point is in trashing the people who are actually doing something about a significant problem in our society. I like the fact that Dateline televises this program so that people can be made aware that people we have been taught we can trust such as priests, rabbi’s, doctors, lawyers, D.A.’s, teachers, etc. engage in this type of behavior. Our society needs to wake up and see some of the terrible things that go on so we can do our best to protect our children. As far as Mr. Conradt, I realize his family is sad, however, for them to sue anybody because of HIS actions is despicable. Has anybody heard of personal responsibility? Keep up the good work Perverted Justice, NBC Dateline and Chris Hansen–I applaud you!

I am a police officer and I wish each police agency in the country could have the resources of NBC and Dateline at their disposal. We could protect children from being victimized instead of working to prosecute suspects after a child’s life has been forever changed. I agree that To Catch a Predator is disgusting but I think it’s disgusting because they are able to catch dozens of predators each show. If these predators were really as reclusive as some have commented, the show itself would virtually stop this behavior. Instead, they are able to catch numerous people each show and a good portion of the suspects say they have watched the show. Dateline has made many lives safer with To Catch a Predator, not only by catching the predators but by showing parents how much danger their kids can be in when they are unsupervised on the computer.
The biggest possible issue with prosecuting the cases shown on Dateline is finding an unbiased jury due to the popularity of the show. I think the District Attorney in Texas is just afraid to do his job.
Don’t be jealous of the popularity of the show ABC. I’m sure dateline wouldn’t be offended if you were to go after drug dealers or some other group of criminals in the same fashion. Don’t try to beat them, join them.

To Catch A Predator is about the same
as Reno 911!!

I want to throw up after watching 20/20′s attempt to discredit Dateline’s “Catch a Predator”. I am embarrassed for you! Next time if you are trying to improve YOUR ratings why don’t you support all shows that help protect our children and maybe come up with such a clever program yourselves. Your show scares me now. I can’t believe your pathetic poor judgement. What predators are making the decisions at ABC?

PJ(Perverted Justice) seems to have found them a cash cow in chasing alleged child molesters. Maybe in the beginning they had noble and good intentions, but then that green eyed devil took hold, and now they seem more like a business that something started for a noble cause. G-Strings, Jockey Straps with leud writings on them, underwear, tee shirts and other merchandise on their website for sale? Where does the money go?

What escapes some of the rabid numbskulls here is that if you really want to catch a predator and keep him/her behind bars, then you don’t blow your case by bringing MSNBC into the picture. Police can have their own cameras and evidence gathering, and the MSNBCs can post their photos after they’ve been identified, and then not blow the case.
There’s nothing wrong with posting the photos of these predators online or on TV. Many of our states post information you can use to identify known sex offenders. And if they are trying to lure people in, what are they doing when people who are seeking this sort of activity get to see their methods?
Examine the case in England recently when, by not announcing their program, the cops busted one child pornographer and didn’t blow their own cover. They logged on his computer and went to locations on the web he’d been going and wound up catching 700 more predators. Why can’t you guys see that this is more effective?
All MSNBC is doing is running sensational gotcha TV and blowing cases along the way by interfering in the process. They can aid in other ways if they are genuinely interested in doing so. Instead of this gotcha material, why not examine how many convicted sex offenders are running our schools, teaching our kids, and driving our school buses.
Those of you who have such a good time watching it, or resort to simple memes about the guy in question, I hope you can see how many of these people get their cases tossed before they get to a jury. You are relishing the interference with the judicial process that could deal with this crime.

I can’t believe you people who are upset about these predators having their “lives destroyed” by the Dateline stories. What about the lives of children that they destroy? THANK YOU DATELINE! 20/20 you should be ashamed.
And for the record, I consider myself very liberal. This is not a Political argument. It’s a Moral issue.

they should not have harassed conradt at his own home, but the fact that he took his own life speaks for itself. he did wrong, and he knew it. plain and simple.

Hats off to PJ and any arrests and convictions they influence with their efforts. However, Chris Hansen and NBC went way over top on this one. The sting operations made perfect sense and the scum bags they nailed deserve all they get and more, but the cameras and pathetic attempts to make Chris Hansen look like a Dodge City Hero were just that…pathetic. The victims in these totally unnecessarily nationally televised sting operations become the family members of the sexual predators (children and wives of these whack-jobs). Bad enough for them that their father/husband will likely lose his job and serve time (all of which he deserves and more…) but each of them get to deal with the sensationalism of having their father’s/husband’s face flashed all over national television. I totally support getting these men off the street so that our children will no longer be pursued by them; however, their families should not have to bare the brunt of Chris Hansen and his ‘crew’ making hey of this on national TV. Tragic and irresponsible that the cases in Texas were dropped because a sloppy approach to reality TV had to jump in and screw it up. Chris, curious that you were not willing to be interviewed after all of the pushing and shoving you’ve done to get interviews and attention in your career. Go ahead, rationalize it away.

There is only one person to blame for the death of the district attorney, and that is himself. He placed himself in that position, as soon as he loged on to his computer with what he thought was a child. His money hungry family just wants to cash out on a perverted family member. How do we know that he did not molest any children? If he did, any money recovered by the family should go to the real victims, the children he molested. To beleive that he did not molest any children would be a real strech. He made the final choice to kill himself,based on his actions, not the actions of any other parties involved. We must hold him responsible for what he was. Just because he was too cowardly to face the same law that he dispensed everyday, will not ever make him a victim. He was a predator and will remain in that position by his actions. As for his family, they should stop trying to collect money, and investigate if any of the children in their family were molested by their beloved victim?

I wear my PJ clothing proudly!!!

Great job on exposing this! If we’re going to have a nation where the laws are applied fairly and properly, we can’t be making exceptions for crimes that happen to be getting a lot of focus at the time.
What Dateline has been doing is vigilanteism veiled thinly in a cloak of psuedo-legality by getting the police to perform the actual arrests.
Are those that accept this kind of thing even thinking about what’s going on? You have a for-profit company gathering evidence so that they can make a show out of catching people. There’s a great deal of room for abuse there, and it is simply unacceptable. This kind of thing should be handled by police alone, not a media outlet
The DA did the right thing in throwing these cases out. It is better to have some guilty people go free than to allow our judicial system to become corrupted, perhaps even to the point where the innocent are being punished.
I’m particularly impressed by this report in the bravery that it demonstrated. People are so whipped up about this kind of thing that they’re forgetting how important it is to preserve standards in how law enforcement is handled, and anyone who points out this shameful thing is attacked, as seen in so many other comments here.

I WILL NEVER WATCH 20/20 AGAIN!! I’m so grossly disgusted of ABC’s segment on Dateline. I pray that Dateline doesn’t slow down it’s efforts in catching and exposing these monsters that ruin children’s lives. Congratulations ABC, you have showed us all what’s important to you.
I WILL NEVER WATCH 20/20 AGAIN!

A quote from the story. Von Erck is an owner of perverted justice.
“Von Erck compared “Dateline’s” cooperation with Ohio officials to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s reliance on an anonymous government source during the Watergate era. In any case, Von Erck said: “We look at those [ethical] rules as just silliness. We’ve never gotten an e-mail from a parent [after a 'Predator' report aired] saying, ‘What about journalistic ethics?’ “

Are we seeing justice for perverts or a perversion of justice?
I watched Dateline’s first installment of this series. I found it incredibly disturbing and was certain it would blow up in short order.
To my surprise, the ratings were huge and apparently, the American public is perfectly comfortable watching what amounts to a lynching party in action.
When I continued to see Dateline advertise one new episode after another, I was getting a little concerned that no one had the guts to step up and stop the madness.
We’d all like to find a way to put a stop to the use of the Internet for “bad” things. I think volunteers can make significant contributions towards that goal. I’d love to see law enforcement come up with a suitable program to encourage and enable interested parties to become “Guardian Angels” on the Net.
PJ seems to be a good idea that is out of control. Dateline has taken journalism to a new low and that is saying something these days.
I anticipate an onslaught of lawsuits against Dateline and will be very anxious to see how the plaintiff’s fare.

In response to cheryl benson…Well aren’t you a mighty big britches. But, at least these other law enforcement agencies are getting the job done, and not just sitting on their bottoms criticizing others. Get busy and get the job done, you have the credentials.
Posted by: cheryl benson | Sep 7, 2007 11:16:41 PM
I am a law enforcement investigator in the mid-west. My department was specifically and repeatedly pressured by the Perverted Justice people as well as the local NBC affiliate. I argued over and over again that these tactics would only serve to embarrass people in an attempt to glorify the image of a law enforcement agency. Utilizing the media to conduct investigations that are this complicated and serious only serves to pressure police to perform quickly and to cut corners to get the “Big Story” out. Cutting corners usually results in cases not being filed, embarrassment, and most importantly failure to serve the crime victim. In addition, the law in my area does not allow the use of non law enforcement personnel to act in the deceptive position that the PJ staff did. While I am an advocate for the protection of children, I have always felt that the NBC / PJ / Law Enforcement relationship was very shallow and minimizing to those who are victims of these crimes as well as to those who spend their lives properly pursuing these criminals. I am surprised that the participating Law Enforcement agencies did not recognize the “Red Flags” with Perverted Justice early on. Commentaries posted on the PJ web site by the PJ staff were provocative, foul, and antagonistic. This organization, good intentions aside, should have developed a professional and mature presentation to avoid the skepticism that most law enforcement agencies apparently had with them. I must believe that most all involved started with good intentions, for that they should not be criticized. The criticism should be focused on the lacking ability to remember who they were working for. Thank you for bringing this story to the public. This should be an example for those people who confuse TV police drama with what it really takes to get the job done right.

One less sicko child predator to worry about. Thanks Conradt for saving the taxpayers’ money.

It must be really tough to be caught reporting stale news. Especially when the news is wrong.
The forensic investigation of Conradt’s computer etc is now complete – and low and behold – not only did he have child porn on the computer, but he also had it on his cell phone and on many CD’s found in the house.
Good riddance to a POS.
Also – The District Attorney for Collin County, who refuses to prosecute is in for a bit of a rude awakening. Another DA is reviewing the files and I would expect – in accordance with Texas law – that charges will be laid against all the men.
I used to enjoy 20/20. After this bit of garbage reporting – and the seemingly portrayal of these scum as victims – it will be some time before the show graces my TV set again.
For the rest of the story see the real news posted at Dateline NBC (in the updates section for TCAP).

Shame on ABC. The ‘To Catch a Predator’ series that NBC has aired is a valuable service to our communities. It would have been nice if not objective to have interviewed those individuals that have been personally affected by pedophiles and seen how they felt about the series. As for the sister of the Asst. D.A. that took his own life I have no sympathy for you and if I were the Judge in your law suit against NBC I would laugh you out of court. Your defense of your pedophile brother is disgusting and I hope he along with all child predators languishes in hell for eternity.

Simply put, ABC wrong NBC right. You shouldn’t have run this piece ABC and 20/20. It just makes you look bad. I’m sorry ABC, I can’t bring myself to watch your programming anymore. This program just made me sick at my stomach to see the level of political correctness involved in the decisions of ABC’s opinion piece and of the district attorney’s stance which really is at fault for causing the current system for failing the victims of child abuse. My father is a retired States Attorney and would see that the crime outweighs the risk of forfeit to pursue prosecution. This district attorney, John Roach is just trying to get re-elected. These vigilantes as you call them, they are heroes, true Americans, not you armchair couch potatoes who are completely complacent with injustice as long as it doesn’t affect you. I am from Fort Myers Florida, and Dateline was here doing the same thing and I would invite them back anytime.

The news should not be involved with making the news nor should law enforcement be involved in a TV drama. Both jobs are compromised when they blur the lines between them.

Has anyone investigated the relationship with the D.A. and his relationship with Condrat? Just wondering if he is defending his friend and ultimately helping the lawsuit of Condrat’s sister. If the charges are dropped, creating instances of illegal arrest, and subjecting PJ, NBC Dateline, and the police department to lawsuits. I agree, this is not tv worthy events (except real news), but PJ and police departments should work together w/o the cameras. Please, someone stop all this reality tv garbage! Also, ABC should come up with real shows, not attack their competition. Maybe they could put the Black Donnellys back on tv.

I think the show is worthwhile although I think is overdone and we see to much of the same thing. When I look to see what the program Dateline is showing half the time it is the “to catch a pretator” I love watching Dateline and would love to see some other reports. I do think it takes a lot of guts for Chris Hansen to do what he has done. Kudos to him.

The D.A. stated that the pedophiles broke the law by soliciting to a minor, so why were all the charges dropped? Why couldn’t something stick? This news station has lost another viewer because of your obvious revenge…

20/20 I will never watch your show again. I guess your ratings must be bad to attack one of the finest shows on TV. As the Mother of three daughters (2) of which were molested I praise Chris Hanson for the wonderful and sometimes dangerous work he does trying to get these animals off the steet. Who cares if they are embarrassed. What about the embarrassment that my two daughters must live with for the rest of their life. You just lost a viewer.

I have always considered 20/20 to be a creditable investigative news program.
However, last evening, to broadcast an interview that sympathized with a sibling of a deceased former District Attorney who was clearly engaged in the trafficking of child pornography, is inexcusable. Furthermore, it lacks any moral or ethical journalism.
All I walked away from by watching this segment is 20/20 finds nothing wrong with the exploitation of our children and condones child pornography.
You lost a loyal viewer.

I guess most commentors here wouldn’t mind either if some “vile pedophile” showed up in front of the cameras and shot his brains off right there on your nice big tv screen.

Regardless of how some of you feel about alleged molesters. We must all remember, even Christopher who identified himself as a lawyer, these people remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. And not at the whims and fancies of NBC or any of us making our own swift vigilante justice decisions about them. The fact that people are innocent until proven guilty in America is one of the many things that makes America great. When those laws fail to protect those of considered the very lest in society, they will one day come full circle and fail to protect to most innocent, vulnerable. They will fail to protect you and me. Just remember that when you are casting stones. NBC to catch a predator was described right on the money by someone who called it nothing more than a horse and pony show for ratings.

I can’t get over the fact that John Roach somehow felt in advance that this was a bad idea, and also chose not to prosecute 23 pedophiles – I am curious as to his motives and what he may have known about Conradt of these other men. ATTN: ALL PEDOPHILES – it’s open season to molest children in Murphy since the DA won’t prosecute you – that’s the message Roach is supporting. I also can’t imagine that any court is going to even entertain his sister’s lawsuit – Conradt chose to commit suicide, no one forced him to do it, he had other choices just as no one forced him to be a pedophile. The old adage is true – don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time – Conradt chose his own punishment and way out. And for the residents of Murphy – are you that sheltered in thinking that Dateline “brought” pedophiles into your city? They are everywhere and willing to do whatever it takes to molest a child – Dateline didn’t cause this – this is nothing new, wake up! I would also watch out since your DA is not prosecuting these crimes – I feel sorry for your kids and for your county. And as for you 20/20 – don’t even try to tell the public that you are not trying to ride the coattails of the Dateline series and get a little publicity for yourself. The Dateline series is different, new and innovative, and has brought immediate and fullblown attention to an issue that so desparately needed it, and now has it – good for you, Dateline. They found the right method to get the message across – people tune in because I think they are incredulous as to how many people – droves of people from all walks of life – continue to hunt for child victims. If they had done this the 20/20 way of sitting behind a desk with running commentaries and little B&W hidden cameras, this story would have been just another Friday night piece. Keep it up Dateline, you have the public’s full support and thanks for fully exposing this issue.

So now were supposed to feel sorry for a pediphile who shot himself because he was embarressed about what he was trying to do? Give me a break. These men are discusting, and at least one less pervert is out there preying on children. They all deserve everthing they are getting, and its a shame they let all those men go. I wounder if this would have been such a big deal if he wasnt such a man of power. I love NBC for what they are doing, they should keep up the good work. Hopefully they will scare these type of people into pursuing their sick fantasies. I hope everyone on this blog who thinks NBC is wrong, takes a good look at their children and think how they would feel if someone was preying on them. You people should be ashamed of yourself!

ABC investigating NBC? Yeah, and I go to Ford dealers for information on Chevy.

The naysayers on here are all Perverted-Justice people who use the same lame arguments every time Perverted-Justice or Dateline is criticized for poor, illegal, or unprofessional tactics. If you aren’t for our operation, you must be baby rapers, pedophile lovers and crazies.
No law abiding citizen wants to see criminals go unpunished. So leave the determination of who is a criminal to the police and not private citizens or news outlets with axes to grind and money to be made.
ABC never said it was against pedophiles being caught or police doing their jobs. Your reading and comprehending skills, as usual, are very selecetive.

I’m disgusted by 20/20′s attempted low blow to Datelines AMAZING work putting scum away where they belong, 20/20 isn’t doing it OR getting the spotlight so they have to sink to new lows by attacking the competition. The man who committed suicide would have done it sooner or later with any uncovering of his disgusting perversion. Why is there so much protection for this PREDATOR??? It’s BETTER HE KILL HIMSELF THEN KILL A CHILD! HAS ANYONE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT???

Are people missing the point of the show? Are people better professionals then the actual professionals that deal with this? What happens when ratings for shows like this fall, and they will. What will shows like Dateline do next? To catch a drunk driver? To catch a Potential Terrorist? To catch a person wearing clashing colors? And yes, I know that these things are different then to Catch a Predator but thats not my point.
My point is this. Every decade, it seems that we find something, as a people, to get hysterical about. The Communist threat, The Satanic Ritual Abuse Scare, etc. It lasts for awhile and many people suffer, including the families AND CHILDREN of those being accused of what ever. Again, please don’t think from the human hysterical part and please understand my point. News shows have the right and responsibility to report the news but NOT TO GET INVOLVED like Dateline. Law Enforcement needs to handle this themselves, any crime. Simplifying a crime to a TV show, well what next… The Running Man?
I give ABC two thumbs up for reporting the news, even though they could have been more thorough. If reporting the news means reporting about another network, then I give them even more credit. They knew what they where getting into but chose to so we Americans could know both sides of what is going on. News should not be treated like a high school drama play and the laws of our country should not be treated like tabloid headlines. Grow up America. We need to think for ourselves and research actual, official information for answers. How many people really believe that NBC will care about any of us and Dateline will stay on the air when the ratings fall to an all time low and stay there? Does anyone really believe that safety and justice will win over ratings and money?
ABC and 20/20 you have gained more viewers then you may realize, including myself. Excellent Job.

i can’t believe that Ross would do a story downing the efforts of catching CHILD PREDATORS. the only thing that needs to be corrected is the process of how they collect evidence “legally” to be able to fully prosecute these scumbags that are robbing our children of their innocence and security. otherwise they are doing a fantastic job of trapping these molesters. televising these peoples faces may make other predators think twice about their sexual desires before they strike. i can’t believe that this has turned into a controversy. wait….let’s do what we always do as americans….lets protect the civil rights of the criminal and involve the ACLU to lobby in washington to change the laws some more to protect our local child predators. as far as the asst. district attorney shooting himself, well…i think he’s heard what they do to “Chesters” in prison and did not have the backbone to defend what he has felt is right to do to CHILDREN. enough already!!!! why do we feel so sorry for these criminals when they go off the deep end? “oh my, their families are devastasted with the outcome of the television show”….”lets sue the network for the wrongful death of my brother.” your brother Conradt, was a sick pervert and a FELON, Patricia!!!! stop trying to cash in at his pathetic life.
what these felons leave behind is a shattered life of a child with social anxieties and who knows what other sociopathic problems they’ll have when they grow up. THESE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE….WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the dateline series was a good wake up call to parents. I also think the ratings kept pushing them to go further and further with it. It is sad, for ratings, that NBC took it as far as they did in the Conradt case. He needed help – not exploitation. People need to think of the family and put themselves in their shoes. How would you feel if it was your brother or father that killed himself for being backed into a corner by a news group that was trying to exploit him? Wouldn’t you rather they seek him treatment? I think NBC should pay for their involvement. As for perverted justice – I think they are just as sick as any of these predators.

I case like this, parents of those teens should be responsible too by not installing firewalls/routers and restricting access to certain websites for kids. This is very easy to do! There are a lot of ways to find out where your kids were on the web. If this is difficult for them, then they can keep a log of all accessed websites from kid’s computer!
I really don’t care about those kids who are 15 and older trying to have sex, they do it anyway in school and after school with each other. But I do care when 2-14 years old is being raped, chased in a park and forced to have sex.
Yet all of them are sexual predators, we should make a difference between those 2 groups. And by the way, jail time will not help them! They need a professional help, treatment and in some cases castration. We put them behind the bars, once they are out they will do it again, and no one seems to have a solution for that.
And also 18yo kid who had sex with 17 yo kid cannot be classified as a child molester too. If we will do everything by the book, then we will have a high number of those we call child predators.
Some of you might disagree with me. Ok, then. But if you call a 15-17 yo a child, then when they commit a murder, don’t treat them as adults, treat them as children who made a mistake. One of those 15yo, when I was in school, killed a guy from my class by torturing and raping him for 6 hours because he owed him $20. Well, he was treated as an adult (as he should!!!) Just remember that those 15-17yo are not kids anymore, they are adults.

Regarding the 20/20 segment aired on 9/7/07 on the “Sting gone bad” in the “To Catch a Predator” series, I found your report to be rather disingenuous. So what if that D.A. killed himself? He’d been soliciting a 13 year old boy for sex. He obviously recognized that the ensuing scandal would ruin his career when he saw law enforcement and the media outside his door. And the argument that “he was a D.A.” as if the fact that he was in law enforcement meant he couldn’t be a child molester is ludicrous. Here in Orange County, California, we had a sitting Judge who would look at child pornography while on the bench. I’m sick of these perverts and if these shows expose their identities and shame them a bit, so much the better.
The bottom line was that I felt your segment was a big old platter of sour grapes. You’re just angry you didn’t think of this concept first, because if you had, you’d have done the same thing. Your “investigative report” was an embarrassment and as a viewer, I deserve better.

The DA of Murphy Texas is a complete idiot. I cannot believe that once again our society cares more for the rights of criminals than for the safety of children in America. The man that killed himself did taxpayers a favor. I would love for Chris Hansen and his team to come to Fairbanks, Alaska and help our police clean up our City. 20/20 has been one of my favorite shows on TV since I was a kid, but I will no longer watch it after they slammed on Dateline for doing a great service to many cities and prtecting many kids in the process. GIVE ME A BREAK, John Stossel!

It’s funny how you conveniently left off a VERY IMPORTANT FACT … Conradt had downloaded a lot of child pornography onto his computer (not just a little bit). Why didn’t you tell us that? Of course, CP is illegal and he knew that. I’m sure that was more of a reason to kill himself, not some silly excuse of a newsteam being there (which I’m sure he had no idea about because he was too busy trying to remove the CP from his computer).
So he didn’t have time to erase his hard drive and figured that LE was on to him, so pow! NOW, doesn’t that make more sense, ABC?
How about next time you report ALL the facts. Huh?

The only one guilty of any crime is the man who talked with “children” to arrange for a sexual meeting. Maybe he was smart enough not to show up but he still initiated the conversation and that in itself is a crime. No one forced this guy to commit suicide. I’m glad Dateline has pursued this program -it’s made the dangers of the internet even more of a topic in our home and really driven home the point to my daughter that mom isn’t being over protective. Free choice people – remember those words? If you don’t like the program, turn it off but law enforcement needs to work with whatever works to get perverts arrested and labeled as perverts. I wish they could do something similar with drug dealers and gang bangers.

[The recidivism rate for sex offenders is ridiculously low. Much lower than any other crime.]
Drug and theft are the HIGHest in recidivism, SO/SPs are between 13% and 5.3%. People need to start listening to the fact from Doctors and not the B*S from police and media.
Parents do YOUR job and get the computer, cell phone and cable TV OUT of their bedroom. If Parents parented, we would have probably almost ZERO offenses.
Although most of these types of crimes are committed by father, brother, uncle NOT STRANGERS!

What happened to teach your children(not kids by the way)right from wrong, good from bad, proper attire? The age of consent is not the same from state to state. What about emancipation of a young person? What about innocent until proven guilty? Also I find this explosion of police and dog shows to be a way to make ready this nation for more losses of our freadom, these shows have NO redeaimal value whatsoever, as they are boring BORING. Sociaty shapeing? Maybe. Our children’s taaching starts at home, good or bad.

Okay, it may have been okay for 20/20 to inform us of this NBC sting’s opperation, however, I have some questions. 1st of all, where did they get the “outakes” of the NBC show. NBC didn’t just give them to ABC, I’m sure. Also, ABC didn’t even put up a graphic saying when it was Chirs Hanson talking (from the NBC show)also, there was NO NEED for the NBC logo to be on the screen during the story, along with the ABC logo, why not put the CBS logo or the FOX logo, let’s just put all the logos at the bottom, I was like what channel am i watching? Shame on NBC for taking over the police department’s true job. Shame on ABC for not doing some better “logistical” cleaning up on the 20/20 program.

Vigilantes are just that, vigilantes. They don’t know where to draw the line. Perverted Justice is a vigilante group. Chris Hansen is a vigilante out for ratings and selling his book. The entire series To Catch A Predator looks a lot like the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe Chris Hansen is just a different kind of predator.

I’m shocked and appalled that Brian Ross and 20/20 would run a story sympathetic towards child molesters. Ross should be fired immediately. Oh, and nice reporting on how the prosecutor through out oral confessions by the child molestors. Oh wait, Brian Ross failed to mention that in his “Exposé”. Guess facts can’t get in the way of a good story, eh 20/20? I can barely contain my anger over these horrible, false allegations this man has brought against the good people at Perverted Justice and Chris Hansen. They’ve done so much to limit the actions of internet predators and this is their reward? Persecution from faux reporters like Ross? Pathetic….

20/20 has reduced itself to tabloid television. It was disappointing to see the amazing bias and lack of objective reporting. This segment reinforces the fact that media is a business, not a representative of the public. Needless to say ABC and 20/20 will not be one of my view choices for news or information.

I’m very happy to see these people put in such compromising and embarrassing situations. What they have done to us, their victims is embarrassing too. It makes me feel like even though I will never see justice for what was done to me and my cousins, atleast someone is getting it.

And kudos to ABC for exposing those PERV at Perverted Justice and Dateline – it is so creepy what they are doing, and also so creepy how so many are almost addicted to watching it! Vigilantism is just as sick as the behaviors. I applaud not only ABC but also those police departments with enough spine to resist the temptation (unlike Murphy’s) to ‘put themselves on the map’ via media sensationalism.

How did ABC get the rebroadcast rights from NBC? Why would NBC have given them to them?

So “ABC” is pissed off at NBC for thinking of a show on how to protect our children, from all kinds of “predators”. No wonder NBC is #1 in the media. You know what, ABC needs to get their “PRIORITIES STRAIGHT”. I support Chris Hansen and Dateline 100%. I truly thank God, for this show. It has really made a difference in how to protect our children. I am looking forward to seeing this show in the Fall.

Hey, sally, if the basice procedures aren’t being met, how come PJ has 222 convictions AND COUNTING? How comes the cops in Murphy don’t have a problem with PJ? Why is Roach the ONLY one in history not to prosecute these scum? Maybe you need to read a little more instead of watching trash “investigations” on 20/20? Yeah. 20/20, GREAT JOB! At creating a “story” which makes you look like the class clown. I’m glad I didn’t watch it, and I’ll make sure that the TV in my house never turns to ABC again. Thanks. I’m sure pedophiles everywhere are thanking you, too.

Also, don’t we have enough crime without “creating” crimes? You’re next, people.

Bravo to Catch a Predator. As I watched the 20/20 segment I was ashamed that Disney Corp since the time of Walt Disney, more than any other entity world wide has devoted it’s entire exisistence toward the respect and happiness of children, would support a program on their network which basically “defended” the so called rights of sexual predators.

You know I think the same way let the police pick-up these men. They pick-up the hookers on their own without cameras right right.
But causing this man to take his own life there is something going on but to bang down his door go down the hall with guns drawn. Please he did not kill someone did he?
I think CBS ought to get out of this business right away before someone that is innocent kills himself.

Shame on ABC for condemning NBC for trying to catch predators that are out to do nothing but hurt our children. You must be jealous of the good work they did. You should be doing something to help the communities from these scum instead of trying to ruin the reputation of Chris Hansen and NBC. Instead you are helping the bad guys.

Being a victim of a CHILD PREDATOR!!, (CHILD PREDATOR is much too nice a name to be given them!!) I say…CATCH THEM IF YOU CAN, ANYWAY YOU CAN!! WHATEVER IT TAKES!!! This is the first 20/20 I have ever found so disgusting!!! What if that had been your child???

It’s quite possible to have contempt for child predators and STILL feel that arresting child predators is NOT an entertainment activity. There’s something very sick and very dark about watching this as entertainment.

Then why NOT prosecute them? He had ALL THE EVIDIECE according to his own statements. He has more problems than this. How about making sure BEFORE you release guilty (according to his first statement) pedophiles back into the community?! Ask what other evidence do we have so we can make a case for conviction? Do we have any other information in the transcripts? Can I get the full transcripts BEFORE I’m FORCED to release these pedophiles back into the lives Texas children.

NBC Disgusts me….Chris Hansen is the worse one of all. Acting like he’s all big and bad. I hope one day someone shoots him because this is the only way this thing will ever stop,as s always is in American society,till someone gets hurt. This show should be against the law. Let the real police do their work. any police agency that agrees to this should be investigated. In the end all they care is about rating…

Have you heard of the judges in New England who let three different child molesters who were brought before them out on bail. Also did we all watch the same show, I saw it as ABC questioning Dateline tactics on how they went about the sting ops, not jealously on ABC part, but if I watch a show like Dateline I want the straight truth not the bells and whistles, and not going about where they will ensure rating.I think the premise is a good one, but that does not mean that they check their morals at the door.

I think the premise is a good one, but that does not mean that they check their morals at the door.

I can’t help but wonder why ABC wants to help return child predators to the streets. Because of this show, there could be many many convictions voided, or charges dropped because some lawyer decides that the way the busts were handled wasn’t by the book.
Thanks ABC. I’m sure there are children and families all across the country that are thankful you saw fit to help release these perverts back to pray on children everywhere.

I have to comment on your segment on “To Catch a Predator Gone Bad.”
I was disappointed in your show. I’ve been a fan of your show for many, many years. Was the purpose of this segment to put down NBC’s Dateline? Was is to shoe Dateline’s poor journalism skills? Or was it to show that child molesters are getting a raw deal from NBC and the justice system?

are you serious!!! they really let those sick jerks go. great now all these gray areas in the legal system are now open and for use to all of the child molesters. and abc you get two thumbs down for me. your network wasnt even trying to teach people how these men trick and decive kids. good job nbc im glad you guys had the guts to show people what they NEED to see. NOW THAT WAS MUST SEE TV! keep up the good work.

I have been thinking since the 20/20 show and my two above comments. In short I gave ABC and 20/20 two thumbs up.
Now what I was thinking is this. Wouldn’t it be great in this country if our news networks started keeping an eye on each other? Instead of all news networks finding different ways to tell the same story all the time, instead they say, “hey, wait, thats not the whole story,” or “Sorry news network 123, you got it half right or completely wrong.”

Your show is DEAD WRONG. Anything & anyone (vigilantes included) who gets pedophiles off the street & preferably DEAD should be contgratulated & supported not berated by your worthless group. Defend the innocent children who can’t protect themselves not the worthless vultures who harm them!

Shame on you 20/20!!!! I cannot believe you have the audacity to criticize Dateline for attempting to protect children and inform the public of just how real the threat of child predators is. You should be joining them, these sickos should be afraid of being exposed on national television, maybe that will deter them from any further perverse behavior.

ABC seems to be trying to advocate protection of the most vile criminals in our society and their criminal behavior. When people think about the rights of the accused, are they thinking about protecting criminal behavior? Rights of the accused are to protect against unjust prosecutions. If a person is guilty of a crime they are a criminal and should be punished accordingly. The predators in the Dateline show are criminals.

SHAME ON YOU, 20/20! It’s obvious you have some jealousy towards your competitor, Dateline and its success. Your show bashing Perverted Justice & Dateline should be the nail in your coffin. As a mother of 3 young boys I welcome any means used to contain these perverts.

The egregious behavior of the networks should be severely punished. The fact that this TV program is permitted to turn crime prevention into blood sport is despicable and every person who claims otherwise (on this blog and elsewhere) has blood on his hands.
A person is innocent until PROVEN guilty. No one – NO ONE – should be subject to this kind of vigilantism and perversion of justice, even those we despise.

I could not believe it when I saw ABC attempting to destroy a competitor network’s useful, necessary, child-saving “To Catch A Predator” series. It reveals your network as “jealous cuthroats who are NOT useful, necessary nor child-saving. The rebuttal on NBC of the “actual” events of the Murphy Texas incidents was FAR DIFFERENT than the way you portrayed the story. I know now why ABC news is NOT the trusted source for news!!!

Conradt’s sister is now suing NBC, claiming its actions led to her brother’s death.
________________________
lmao…..her brother’s action led to his own death. I don’t care how these guys go, as long as we get them off the street!!!!!!!!!!

This episode reveals jealously and shoddy reporting at just about every level possible for ABC. Some nitwit came up with the idea and ABC proceeds to spend how many thousands of $$$$’s producing/airing it?
Stop for a minute and consider this:
How many people put in how many hours working on this episode?
Compare that to the staff and volunteers at PervertedJustice.
At the end of the day one group of people aided law enforcement in the apprehension of disgusting scum. Others have nothing but a pathetic 42 minutes of television that they’re likely ashamed to admit they were a party to.
I know which group I’d rather belong to.
Anyone know where I can sign up to help PervertedJustice???

First of all I do not care that that man chose to take his life. He knew that we was caught and chose that path.
Personally I feel that the children are safer without him in this world. Second, shame on the DA for dropping the cases against the men that admitted their guilt on national television.

I had just checked to see recent posts & interestingly found my post went under the name Richard on Sept 8 2007 3:16:22am so I will assume Richard’s post was under mine on Sept 8 2007 3:19:25. There is over a 2 hour time with no posts before that. The company who runs the blog board seemed to have some how messed up on the postings.
Anyways to continue my thoughts from my last post as said I do enjoy the show but I do not feel NBC should have been involved in getting a “confession” out of them on national TV. It was almost like impersonating an officer. Many that were arrested thought Chris Hanson was a police officer.
I have watched “Cops” many times But with “cops” the network was NOT involved other then filming incidents as they actually happened. With “To Catch a Predator” NBC is directly involved with the law enforcement activities that lead up to an arrest.
I do believe there is a conflict of interest there.

I was amused after reading some of these comments. “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty”…If that was so then everyone would be out walking the streets instead of locked up behind bars until their trial. What do you think happens?…the police shows up at your door, softly knocks and hands you a piece of paper stating that “we have evidence that you have molested the child down the block and that you need to show up for court on this certain date”…lol. Yes, there is a process but it does involve an arrest.
…and Bob..yes, we all have our demons but not all our demons cause such devastation in other people’s lives.

I feel sorry for the Chief when the plaintiff’s attorney takes a deposition from him.The way he handled the telephone number he will be a punching bag.

How is what happened different from a lynching? A lynching by designated thugs with high-tech equipment and old-fashioned self-righteousness?

I just heard Chris Hansen’s response to ABC’s report and I believe NBC is doing a good job. Doesn’t matter how or who they get, when you catch adults that use children for sex its great. Shame on ABC for going after NBC.
Jere

As a victim of child molestation I was thrilled that someone found a way to draw these guys out.
It did not happen to me once, but repeatedly by older men when I was a child.
If they had NBC’s show on back then, maybe, even though I had “victim” written on my forehead, it would have made those men think twice before going through with it!!
The men that were caught, I can guarantee that they sent disgusting material to young people repeatedly. Material that a child maybe your child, will carry in there minds eye FOREVER. And the ones who showed up at the house…What if it had been your home ABC?
They steal innocence. If it had been one of your children ABC and District attorney John Roach, I am sure you would be on your knees thanking God and NBC and the police who got these guys off the street. Imagine everyone…. lost innocence. Damaged for LIFE. Putting deadly fear in us to EVER trust again.
20/20 makes me terrified that NBC will have to stop the show. Dear God, over a ratings war? May God have mercy on you because I see you protecting the men and hurting the innocent children present and future who would benefit from Datelines To Catch A Predator.
What is wrong with you people? THEY ARE CATCHING MEN FINALLY THAT HURT OUR CHILDREN!!!! HOW CAN THAT BE WRONG? Watch the shows. Most of the men are repeat offenders. They cannot stop by themselves. It is a sick disease and addiction. PROTECT OUR CHILDREN USING ANY MEANS POSSIBLE.

I was hoping that the public might be more supportive of this 20/20 segment. The answer is not to bash either program but to become educated on the tactics used by pedophiles. It is a serious thing that most definitely needs to be addressed. However, prosecuting this type of crime or any other needs to be done legally and by those that are professionals. The chat logs need to be authenticated and intent of the accused needs to be confirmed. We have laws that need to be upheld for everyone regardless of the crime. Pedophiles don’t snatch our children off the internet! Parents hand them over to them by not monitoring what their children do when they are online. Pedophiles hang out at theme parks, McDonalds, soccer games, your neighborhood park. They come in both sexes, they are teachers, doctors, lawyers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, family friends, clergy from every walk of life. AND they are generally someones son, daughter, mother or father…that not only brings the pain on themselves but their entire family. Reading the post on here remind of a lynch mob, then we wonder what is wrong with our nation and our children! Instead of ABC or NBC doing these types of shows, how about one that gets to the truth of the matter and tells parents how to spot a predator, teach your children to stay away from strangers or family members for that matter, that may act inappropriately.

I DON’T CARE if Chris Hansen and NBC are making money, writing books, doing it for “sensationalism”, making this a Broadway Play!! Etc. If it gets these WOULD BE Sex Offenders OFF the Streets and away from our children I DON’T GIVE A DAMN!! As long as the END result is our children’s lives and bodies being protected!!!! It’s complete liberal idiots like 20/20 that let monsters who are CLEARLY GUILTY off in a court trials because of some stupid “reasonable doubt” crap! Perverted Justice IS JUSTICE you MORONS!!

Chris Hanson fans: Ever had an impure thought cross your mind? Then do the right thing and turn yourself into the authorities, now. You have committed ThoughtCrime and have already been found guilty under PreCrime law.
Satire aside, the Newstainment industry should spend more time going after REAL predators and less after one’s they CREATE. Read Milton Mankoff’s comments above. He is one of few here offering level-headed input about this hot-button subject.

Law Enforcement within every community I have ever lived in always asks for the assistance of the public. Police cannot do it alone. Most are underfunded and do not have enough officers. PJ.com has successfully given excellent and unaltered evidence to the police to make all those arrests. Prosecutors have proven in court that PJ provides first class solid evidence for prosecution. The courts (cases in both state and federal levels) have prevailed in over 95% of the cases. Most do not even go to trial as the suspects plead guilty or nolo contendere. You cannot belittle success.
This PJ group are not in any way vigilantes. They never solicit these child predator suspects. The suspect is always the initiator. Evidence is never altered or made up. These people work hand in hand with local authorities. PJ never do the arrests themselves.
PJ is an excellent example of citizens directly assisting law enforcement.

I would like to thank Dateline NBC, 2020 and any/all programs who are trying to bring these preditors to justice. I know first hand what this can do to a child as I had the unfortunate experience of being sexual assualted by a family member but I never told anyone to this day (this went on from the time I was about 6 yrs old until I graduated high school. I always thought it was me. What was I doing wrong? But God chose me for a reason and I truly believe this. I am 54 yrs old and finally wrote a book to try and help children and convince them to tell, tell, tell the whole world if any adult touches them inappropriately. This is one sad world we live in and this went on with me during the 1950′s thru the 1970′s. I am not a salesperson and don’t know how to market my book but once again I must remain unanonamous because tis person’s children and my sisters /all living/ know nothing of my experiences. He is now dead and I am glad and may his soul rot in hell forever.

TCAP and Perverted-Justice are just fanning the flames and riding the wave of the latest moral panic. In addition they are deflecting responsibility by blackening the name of a dead guy and misusing the public’s revulsion at the very mention of child pornography.
Their ridiculous antics trivialize child victims and distract from the most prevalent forms of child sexual abuse, which are those committed by people known to victims and their families…in the REAL world.
Fanatics have no place in legitimate law enforcement and no contribution to make in the prevention of abuse and victimization. Period.

I believe it is a shame that someone took their own life. I do not believe that NBC or the police are the cause though. I think that had this man not had some sort of illness that he felt the need to, if only, fantasize about children. Anyone that preys on children deserves to be arrested, and the fact that he saw television cameras should not be his reason. Anyone convicted of any sexual crime will have their picture made available to anyone. One tragic accident in the plentiful stream of successful arrests, keeping these perverts away from children, however tragic, still a small price to pay!

By any means necessary get these child molesters off the streets. I listen to the CNN interview this morning and I was shocked that ABC would take a stand against what NBC is doing to protect our children. Shame on you ABC.

you’re next, Sheeple. But I understand. Bush got elected so 1/2 the people (at least voters) in this country are stupid.

Criminals don’t play with fair rules and sometimes you need the help of others to get them – the POLICE CAN’T DO IT ALL (spend hours & hours – days & says – weeks & weeks – getting the confidence of a slimy pedophile) That is why Perverted Justice is a must! It take a village to raise a child and one PERVERT to destroy one. Why make it harder to stop someone trying to use children for sexual gain? Apparently – Murphy, TX (or surrounding area – where he is from) wants to have the pedophiles in all aspects of it’s community (having a PEDOPHILE as an Asst. D.A.! I just bet he was really tough of his own kind i.e. other pedophiles like himself!) That Asst. D.A. BLACKENED his own eye with his own actions of soliciting a minor over the net and sending pornography over the net to a minor. He did it all to himself! And his sister seeking her own fame and is shamelessly money hungry herself trying to capitalize – suing NBC. Who can even find it possible to stand by and defend a slimy pedophile – even if he is your brother! Going after children – that is what is shameful – she just embarrassed herself on 20/20 – I bet she would have been out raged if it was HER child being prayed upon! I hope she don’t get a dime out of anyone for her brother’s own reckless, self destructive, life ending event!
It is appalling that 20/20 wants to waste air time protecting pedophiles – SHAME on you 20/20 – personally attacking another news agency! Are you that hard up for ratings? I am done with 20/20 and Brian Ross – It is a shame because 20/20 USED to be so honorable!
Tivo: Season Pass….20/20…..deleted!

abc was my source of information but not anymore, i can trust news show that make sick perverts look like victims, they are sick animals who pray on our children. they don,t have to answer those decoys or agree to meet the at their houses and if they shoot themselves that is because they know they did something wrong every pedophile should follow william conradt lead and shoot themselves. our world will be a better place for it. thank you to nbc for doing something for our children, maybe abc should try and follow nbc’s lead and try to help with this problem instead of being the problem shame on you this is nothing but sour grapes on abc’s part

If the sister wins the law suit and receives millions because of her brothers death, she should donate all the money to help stop child predators.
How much money does the victims who has been abused receive? Most of the time, all they get if a life time of problems.
I’m curious. How many child molesters have been arrested in that area of Texas in the last 5 years. The law enforment who was interviewed on 20/20 feels they didn’t need the dateline. They can find predators and do the job themselves. Hopefully you’re catching the predators before they catch the kids.

It appears most responders on here are against what 20/20 did. I could not let this go by without comment. I applaud 20/20 for reporting on this and exposing Dateline and Perverted Justice for what they are…perverted! I am not condoning or approve of anyone abusing or hurting a minor. They should go to jail. What I think is dispicable is the sensationalism of the media, police departments that agree to putting on this charade, and Perverted Justice looking for nothing more than free publicity. What appears to be people putting on Superman outfits and being the “good guys” are nothing more than vigilaties themselves and luring their catch. I feel sorry for the guy that shot himself. I also feel sorry for the many guys that took the bait and had their lives shattered by Dateline’s irresponsible reporting. This is truly a travesty and one that smacks of guilty until proven innocent. If Dateline(or 20/20) really wants to make a dent in making our society better, they need to go after the porn industry. Porn runs rampant on our college campuses and gets into the hands of our youth at the stroke of a key on their computer or the flip of a channel on their dish TV system. These are the sexual predators of the future and we have yet to see the tip of the iceberg.

Shame on ABC? Shame on all of you! No one here is defending a pedophile. Regardless of what this man was doing, he still has rights (this is America after all). NBC and Perverted Justice decided to go into the law enforcement business. Unfortunately, they don’t have the training that law enforcement agencies have. If they were interested in catching criminals, they should have let the law enforcement agencies handle this beginning to end.
NBC doesn’t consult the citizens of the city where they want to stage their operations. The citizens of Murphy did NOT want this to happen in their town but NBC didn’t care. They just want ratings.

20/20, SHAME ON YOU! -
1) DA is the one “looking for a few minutes of TV” time.
2) ABC is clearly jealous of NBC.
3) Pedophiles do not deserve sympathy – EVER.
4) Why should we wait until a criminal goes to work to arrest him? Because he is a DA?
20/20 – THIS IS TRULY DISGUSTING!

Anybody who comes on here speaking of the rights of child sex offenders who preys on children is a sub-human POS that is suspect of the act itself. So I guess next week 20/20 can go behind the scenes of America’s Most Wanted because everybody knows that criminals seem to have more rights then victims these days and the best place for criminals is not behind bars or in the ground. But, On the streets of America where they can victimize. To the idiot that said he hopes someone shoots Chris Hansen are you kidding me? Last, But not least 20/20 Police Departments do stings and use the media every day to help solve crimes. I guess ABC News now has a policy of “Stop Snitching” Because if ABC helped to put the criminals away what would ABC report on 75% other then the BS in Washington?

20/20 came across as jelous losers and Collin County District Attorney John Roach should step down from his job. He has no clue to the amount of predators stalking young children as proven by Dateline and I here of him catching zero of them. We should embrace the efforts of Dateline even though it has entertainment values as well. As far as ratings go…. Come on, we all like to the bad guys taken down. As far as the dead guy = child porn = fair trade. They can not be cured so either removed from society or do the right thing and off ones self. 20/20 should be ashamed!

I am so disappointed in you ABC Primetime! It seemed like sour grapes to me. How could you not give credit where credit is due. What NBC did was extremely commendable! They have taken action to protect our children. What you have done to try to discredit the show is dishonorable. The show was an eye opener for people to see just how many sick people there are out there in all walks of life that are out to hurt our children.
THANK GOD FOR NBC and 20/20!!!

One more thing, i LOVED your story on the D.C. Madam, clearly your show is concerned with one thing; Reporting the facts; and nothing but the facts.
keep up the excellent job ABC!!

Let me ask you a question CJ Blackwindow. Exactly how many of you posting replies here are child predators and those who would enable them? Or just plain ignorant of the facts? I know I see a few!
Now, ENTRAPMENT ONLY APPLYS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
I am a long time PJ poster and I volunteer when I can. Just knowing what I know, I am convinced there is no entrapment, just like the 200 some odd Judges who were convinced it isn’t. The Perverted-Justice Organization ALWAYS works within the law. The years working with every kind of law enforcement agency there is. Now, I don’t believe that over 200 agencies from different levels of the city, state and government hadn’t detected any law breaking from any Perverted-Justice Admin or Contributor. Now maybe the TONS of pending cases that I’ve heard mentioned might uncover some dirty vigilante lawbreaking deed, but I highly doubt it. Many of you might not know but PeeJ works with many more LEA besides the ones on Dateline.
So… You know why me and over 200 LEAs, DA and judges don’t see it as entrapment? Even tho’ a citizen can’t be held to the same entrapment laws as LEAs.
Because
The Contributor goes into a chatroom, sits there and waits. The predator CONTACTS the contributor. And sometimes it’s not even through chat. They’ve been known to contact the contributor through the contrib’s underage profile or though MySpace. ALWAYS, within the first few lines, the contributor states the age. Usually between 12 and 15. Having sex is ALWAYS brought up by the preditor. That’s what helps it stand up in court and ruling out entrapment.
If some of you don’t like citizens doing what they LEGALLY can to stop people who would prey on children can go bite a stick til it stop hurting or go fight to change the LAWS! Like a certain person did at Perverted-Justice! YES! Get off your duff and do what that person did!
One thing I’m pretty sure of by being a long time peejer is.. Not ALL the bust’s PeeJ brings to Justice are Pedophiles.. There are plenty of opportunists. But it doesn’t matter to me which label fits the child predator, they..are..ALL..a..danger..to..our..children!!
They’ve been preying on the children in our homes, streets, parks, malls, schools, churchs and any where there are children. Now they’re seeking children where there are masses of them! And we as citizens don’t have to break the law to make a difference. We can’t go around busting some daddy’s door down or tackling a child snatcher on the street and beating the live hell out of him! But Perverted-Justice and people like me are going to do what ever we legally can to keep this scourge away from the children on the WWW.

I do not think Conradt took his life because of Dateline. Imagine being a prosecutor, sworn to uphold the law, caught by police with incriminating evidence. It was, afterall, his job to protect us and our children from someone like himself. In my opinion, he was a coward who did not want to face the consequences of his actions. My heart goes out to his family but suing Dateline is just a way of denying that Conradt knew that life as he knew it was over with or without Dateline.

I am so disgusted with ABC for trying to ride the coat tails of NBC and to Catch a Predator.. When was the last time anyone even cared what was on ABC or 20/20?? Since Dateline found the edge – they’re the one getting the ratings and ABC doesn’t like it. I watch Dateline and I think they’re doing a good thing here, and I am saddened by the Police Department who would be a part of it and then turn around and put all the blame on Dateline. I am positive that there are a number of police departments and places in which Dateline could have filmed their show, and if this police department is so horrified at having been involved with them why didn’t they speak up sooner. Why is it that only a letter was written stating that they are law enforcers and not in show business.. If this was SO important that it required a LETTER! why did they allow the County and Police Department to go through with the taping of the show? Why did they agree to the rules and regulations set up by Dateline? and Why is it that no other Police Departments where Dateline did their filming complaining? This was sloppy but it wasn’t Dateline’s fault – ABC YOU ARE PATHETIC – WHY DON’T YOU GO OUT AND TRY TO FIND A REAL STORY – INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET RATINGS BY BASHING WHAT NBC DOES – Anyone who can’t see what you’re doing here is BLIND!!! PATHETIC!

Von Erck said: “We look at those [ethical] rules as just silliness. We’ve never gotten an e-mail from a parent [after a 'Predator' report aired] saying, ‘What about journalistic ethics?’ ”
this scares me as a journalist NBC crossed the line and PAYED a grope that fells that journalist Ethics are some thing to be pushed aside in order to make money.

In reply to -
“Posted by: John O | Sep 7, 2007 9:47:04 PM
To Catch A Predator is a worthwhile program to deter pedophiles from interacting with children.”
There have been many episodes where one or more of the pedophiles have seen To Catch a Predator and still are commiting this horrible crime. To Catach a Predator does not deter pedophiles from interacting with children.

In reply to – “Posted by: John O | Sep 7, 2007 9:47:04 PM
To Catch A Predator is a worthwhile program to deter pedophiles from interacting with children.”
To Catch a Redator does not deter pedophiles from interacting with children. There have been many episodes where they have caught someone who has seen the show before.

Congratulations to both ABC and NBC. They’ve fulfilled their respective missions admirably.
Look at all of the people still talking about it.
Blah blah blah.

I have seen some seriously sad and shortsighted comments on here.
For one, shame on ABC… as usual it seems, you lag behind CBS by only the thinnest of margins when it comes to integrity, for shoving a big steaming plate of ‘sour grapes’ on camera.
For another, anyone who thinks that people should NOT actively pursue sexual predators, especially those who prey upon children, but rather sit back and let ‘justic take it’s course’ are really sad and shortsighted. You are, in all your infinite ‘big picture’ wisdom condoning the pedo’s actions through your innaction. You can’t take back molestation, it never goes away, a life long psychological scar (and maybe physical as well) on the child who has been molested.
To the ‘scholars’ claming that the citizens of this country should provide counsiling and therapy for some of the lowest scumbags on the earth to reduce what are nationally acknowledged and obscenely high recidivism rates… bugger off, and do it fast. I don’t care to see my tax dollars wasted on this trash… weed them out and put them down permanently, they will do it again and even if they don’t their crime is so hideous, so extreme that anyone who harbors compasion for these monsters should have their head examined.

Also on the coat tail of what Sandi said I would like to also add that PERVERTED-JUSTICE also goes to schools NATION WIDE to speak to children and their teachers and parents regarding internet safety and ALSO have been invited or requested for PERVERTED-JUSTICE REQUESTED to come to LAW ENFORCEMENT agencies all over the States to TEACH their officers what they know, yes PJ not only sit in chat rooms waiting for a person to talk to what they think is a child but PJ also speaks to schools and are highly requested to teach Police what they know!

Regarding the poster who suggested that the story in July’s edition of the Rolling Stone (RS) on Perverted Justice (PJ) as being a “be all end all” investigative journalist piece. I took the time to read that RS story again which actually got me interested in the author. What other kind of stuff does she write about? I read several more of her stories and I can tell you that I’m not impressed. That the RS story seems to question the legitimacy of PJ’s actions and seemingly comdemns all those that have found a method to identify sexual deviants and to incarcerate them is not too surprising. Of course I only know the author by her previously written stories, but there is certainly a sexual provactive nature to her topics. Interesting if that is all you can tend towards in your topics.

How is it not Datline and NBC’s fault that that man killed himself? If they hadn’t of shown up and handled it the way they did he’d still be alive. Also, people change… people attracted to kids can and DO quite successfully learn to control and manage their urges and no longer offend, going on to lead productive lives without commiting any crime or harming any child. And I do see this NBC show and it’s tactics as entrapment and sensationalism, NBC wants higher ratings… their prime concern isn’t to help kids (perhaps it was the first time they did it, but upon seeing the ratings boost these “gotcha” shows brought them it changed).

Any man who preys on children, send nude pics of himself over the internet to chldren needs to be arrested and placed in a prison with the rest of the freaks who committ those kinds of terrible crimes. I was born in Terrell, Texas and I for one think this guy was a filthy perv. Too bad he couldnt take what he dished out…

And to the people who want the parents to teach their children or it’s some how their fault if they don’t? Pull your head out!! Not ALL children have internet savey parents or able to hang over their shoulders every minute. There are MANY at risk children roaming the internet. Should we sacrifice them to predators because their parents didn’t teach them any better? Are you going to blame the child because they’re missing something in their life that makes them susceptible to groomers and opportunists?
That is a very narrow mindset and very cold hearted too!! Disgusting!!!!!!
And to you PJB? Ha! For not being “trained” PeeJ is sure getting the word out, putting pervs on notice and getting plenty of convictions!
Of course the bottom line is.. You don’t work in the inners circle of Perverted-Justice so you DON’T have proof of what you’re saying now do you?

“Dateline” and it’s “Perverted Justice” franchise is essentially titillating, soft-core porn (although it masquerades as being about “saving children” to give it a form of legitimacy).
Do you really believe NBC is not aware of that fact? Ever notice how programs that do themes about teachers seducing students, such as Debra Lefavre, are filled with hot, revealing photos of her? (Yea, like they’re not encouraging people to fantasize about either her, or the 14 year old boy she seduced).
Even programs with themes about Jon Benet Ramsey, claiming “disgust” at how she was exploited, such as “Larry King Live”, are filled with pictures and footage of her prancing around in little outfits.
It’s no different than “Perverted Justice”‘ endless array of imaginary 13 and 14 year old girls, a Lolita fantasy for male viewers in particular, along with sexy voices, and actresses who pretend to be younger. As if they’re not trying to turn on the viewers, while claiming to condemn people for being turned on by it…
While Chris Hanson reads back explicit e-mails to the person who thought they were writing to an underage individual, and, feining shock, says “You thought you were saying this to a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL?” It’s only done for titillation, folks.
People like to feel superior to others, which the show plays off of. Like the boy who secretly may feel an attraction to other boys, but in order to keep it a secret, bullies other, weaker boys, and calls them “fags”. Men who secretly are attracted to 14 year old girls, but won’t admit it, can watch some hapless individual on “Perverted Justice” get set up, and laugh at him, in order to cover his own hind.
Do I hear echoes of Tom Foley?
To the people who praise “Perverted Justice”, and their going around giving lectures to schools…I’m just wondering if they also market their merchandise to the kids, the kind displayed on “20/20″, such as thongs that say “contents aged at least 18 years”?

Shame on you 20/20! You would never be badmouthing the series if it was your network that had thought of it first. You are only jealous because of the high ratings the NBC series has gotten. Stick to uncontroversial “feelgood” stories, such as the volunteer math “teacher”. That is all you “reporters” on this network are capable of anyway!
Kudos to Dateline for exposing the sickos!

We now read that the NBC News people called those guys to get them to come to the house. In the case of the suicide victum, they called him three times and when he did not show up Chris Hanson said go to his house and arrest him.

What is the matter with all of you at 20/20! Does anyone at 20/20 what a sex offender registry is! How could you take the side of sexual predators who at times arrive with weopons or rope and ductape who would leave a young teen raped and beaten. Everyone of those Pedophiles showed up at those sting houses on their own initiative looking for sex with a child. Dateline NBC and Perverted Justice is doing the world a Big favour by exposing those scumbags. Children must be protected!
Chris Hansen Rocks!

I dont know about the repeat rate of these monsters. Rates are not concrete facts. Rates just show that they arent dumb enough to get caught again. Police use citizens EVERY day to catch fugitives. They are called COMMUNITY WATCH, NEIGHBORS, in prison, SNITCHES,and,in some cases INNOCENT BYSTANDERS. The police depts arent paying them to do this. NBC is paying them a consulting fee. And, the amount they are actually paying them, cant even be called “pay” but more like “charity”.

I think this 20/20 episode was absolutely rediculous and uncalled for. It looks to me like ABC wanted a part of the fame. If the NBC series helped one pedifile think about what they were about to do before they did it then I think they did their job. Go Dateline!!

I can’t believe that you liberal people defend these perverts and attack Dateline who is doing a public service. As a father I salute Dateline for raising awareness and taking some of these dirt bags off the streets keeping our children safer!!!! So I have to ask did 20/20 wish they came up with the idea first?? Sure seems that way!!

For all of you who want to defend the perverts and criminals in our society and say that they were “entrapped” – perhaps you are hiding a secret yourself. It is beyond me how anyone could defend perverts who want to rape innocent children and who send those same innocent children pornography – images that will be with them for the rest of their life. Who really cares if the Assistant DA killed himself – he did us all a favor. He knew he was guilty – camera or no cameras. If Dateline hadn’t been there, the local media would have found out and they ALL would have reported it – ABC included. His sister, 20/20 and the DA should all be ashamed. We need more people like Chris Hansen – he has exposed the worst of the worst in our society.

For the people criticizing nbc, and that includes the hacks at abc who put this hit piece together, nbc has updated their murphy story with more relevant facts including the fact that Conradt’s computer was found to have child porn on it.
Also, they had a different prosecutor in Texas on to rebut the incomprehensible legal analysis from the DA who dismissed the charges. After seeing nbc’s update, I think ABC, and the Texas DA owes everyone a bigtime explanation.

I never miss Perverted Justice. I love the look of disbelief on the face of these would-be childhood snatchers as Chris Hanson confronts and exposes them. Nothing they feel at that time of their confrontation could compare to the feeling a child must have when they are confronted by their molesters. As for the dead DA what a coward, could not even owen up to what he was. Ah, if only the authorities could break down the door of every child molester…..

Some of you people are so blind, or members of perverted justice. ABC is not trying to protect pedophiles. They are trying to protect the constitution. I can’t speak for ABC, but I am sure they support legitimate stings by law enforcement agencies that take these people that prey on children out of circulation. Just look at the name. Perverted justice. That speaks volumes.

“Remember Cadre Members, double points for turning in a family member today!”
From The Running Man
But it could never happen in real life right? Especially not in America right?

The issue, and I commend ABC for addressing it, is it is the police department’s responsibility to appropriately handle child molestation cases and predators, not NBC and Chris Hansen. I commend their efforts but there is no room in the judicial system for TV ratings.If our justice system is reliant on NBC and Chris Hansen to appropriately gather evidence and use them as their sole source of expertise to find child molesters then yes, every single case should be thrown out. We need to let law enforcement do their job without camera crews leading them along.

Bob, you complain about ABC’s ethical and journalistic standards. What’s ethical about using incomplete transcripts that can be edited.Most of the men prosecuted were fools to admit anything. I’m sure the 2 or 3 lawsuits pending will be a drop in the bucket by time this is all over.I respect your opinion, but I sincerely hope your ethics in preparing cases are much higher than NBC’s

There is no good rape and bad rape, there is only rape. There are no good victims and bad victims there are only victims. There is no good consensual sex and bad consensual sex, there is only consensual sex.

So….why is ABC so anxious to make sure that others reading this don’t know about the SELF-IDENTIFIED pedophiles here?

I am truly disappointed in 20/20. Dateline, Perverted Justice, and the cooperating law enforcement agencies were thinking outside of the box. Obviously child molestation is rampant, what I didn’t hear in this investigation was an alternative or solution to Dateline’s effective sting operations. Dateline along with the other outfits have been successful at punishing these sick men beyond criminal charges. Confronting these men and making them accountable by putting them on t.v. is a punishment well deserved by these perverts. Who are we trying to protect by not broadcasting this, the children or the high-ups such as the assistant district attorney, who couldn’t own up to the consequences of his choices, and took his own life? Dateline doesn’t owe his family a dime.

Thank you Alissa for admitting that dateline is punishing these sick men? Dateline obviously is doing something illegal by punishing these people prior to conviction. Since when is dateline in the punishing business anyway? There is an alternative to the stings done by dateline. Legitimate stings run by law enforcement should be done in every city. I’m sure they would follow the correct procedure. Conviction before punishment. Again, thank you for pointing out that a tv show is punising people not yet convicted.I also thank ABC and 20/20 for trying to protect what’s left of our constitution.

ABC News should be embarrassed! Focus on your own programming and stop taking cheap shots at NBC.
NBC and Chris Hansen deserve accolades and awards for putting this issue in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Pedophiles are gross, sick and disgusting people who prey on children… WHY should we protect these individuals? We SHOULD be protecting the children, the ignorant and naive teens…
I know ABC News has the ability to be innovative and provocative. The Peter Jennings special on AIDs in Black America was RIVETING! Excellent, excellent journalism. So why don’t you go back to the conference room and think of more under-reported stories and issues and produce something worthwhile… instead of dissecting the ratings and plotting on ways to derail NBC.

Viamund, You consider sex with a child as harmless? Even though they can be prosecuted as an adult, they are not. They are still children and need to be protected. Maybe with your attitude, we will find you on the registry someday.

Blaming Dateline for the Murphy DA refusing to prosecute and for the other DA’s suicide is bizzare. There is absolutely no evidence that Condradt knew he was the subject of a Dateline sting unless someone in the Murphy DA’s office or the police tipped him off. He didn’t see cameras or Chris Hansen before he killed himself.
As stated numerous times, this is the first time a DA has refused to prosecute based on these stings done with a Perverted Justice / police department partnership. Perverted Justice’s televised and nontelevised stings have resulted in successful prosecutions all across the country without any successful claims of entrapment. Dateline isn’t doing these stings. Just filming them. Perverted Justice does more stings with police departments than they do with Dateline filming.
People who claim that Perverted Justice is altering chat logs have no knowledge of computer technology. The computers seized in these cases have proven over and over that Perverted Justice does not alter any of the chat logs and often contain more damning evidence against the pervert than the chat logs. DA Condradt’s computer and other electronic devices had child pornography on them as well, another serious crime. Is that Dateline’s fault too?
As to ABC’s pretense of being above voyeurism, take a look at the 20 / 20 page asking if there is anyone who has turned in a family member for a crime or who thinks their child may be gay. Worthy of a Springer show but not serious investigative journalism.

Watching this program and reading the responses to the article is just sickening.
ABC is so jealous of the fact that NBC’s journalism has actually created a positive change that they had to resort to lying in order to gain popularity.
To Catch a Predator series has done more for child victimization than the court system has been able to. The cops can not protect us all the time, and finally someone comes along to help, and this happens.
You could have made a landmark change and worked together to protect our citizens…but no, you chose to destroy something that is good.
So what a D.A. commited suicide because he could not handle his own crimes…that is HIS problem, he should have sought mental health prior to actively seeking ways to break the law…I feel no remorse for his death and his sister needs to come to terms with the fact that her brother was a pedophile who could not handle the heat when he got caught.
ABC, I am ashamed of the work you actively destroyed, your not exposing anyone, your hurting the general public because you can not see through your own jealousy…

Interesting show last week. Its always good to see things from others’ prospective. I have been watching both, Dateline & 20/20, shows from longtime back. NBC & ABC has done fairly good job in reporting. It is good to report facts, being critical about facts is very integral part of democracy we enjoy everyday as Americans. I have read few comments above and some are very opinionated. Everyone has their take on the topic. Remember you have right to express, not to impose.

In repsonse to this comment “about time it has been brought to light what crap this show is..i stopped watching ,i found it dispicable. Did anyone consider the family? kids at school? inocent wife?? this show should end, sure arrest them, catch them, but dont film it.” Um, what?? Maybe the digusting ‘family guy’ should’ve thought about his kids and wife before making the decision to engage in sexual acts with minor. Ya think??? What would’ve happened if Dateline hadn’t been there and this pervert actually met up with the young child as he intended? Think about this – what if it had been your child? Yes, I’m assuming that most of you haters have children. I do the best I can to protect and educate my kids but I can tell you that if any perv wants to approach my child – he’d better HOPE Dateline is there.

Bill, The only taped confessions that are allowed in court are those made by police after the suspect has been read his Miranda rights. The chat logs are not taped confessions but evidence which are is overwhelming and probably why so many plead guilty.
Claiming these stings are somehow an illegal means of catching child predators is disengenuous considering the hundreds of convictions they have resulted in. If you don’t want to get stung, don’t break the law by trying to have sex sith kids. Simple isn’t it?

You’re right Bill, Dateline is not in the business of punishment. They are in the business of exposure and if a punishment should result, then well done. Obviously if our judicial system were doing a proper job then Dateline would not be able to uncover the mass amount of pedophiles in our country. What does a conviction do? It’s a slap on the wrist and then that same pedophile is back in the neighborhood you and I live in. At least they have been exposed and brought to some sort of justice, which may not be politically correct, but it’s better than a name on a list of child molesters wandering somewhere in our communities.

Bill, Since 2003 Perverted Justice stings have resulted in the conviction of 223 sexual predators. Of that number, 81 were in 2006 and 100 since January 2007. I don’t know the percentages, but Perverted Justice claims a 100% conviction rate (leaving out Murphy, Texas, of course). I don’t know how many were filmed by Dateline, but the filming has no impact on the techniques Perverted Justice uses to gather solid evidence of their crimes. There are many more in the judicial pipeline. So far these convictions have carried a punishment from probation and registry as a sex offender to 15 years in prison. Obviously men who continue to take the risk of soliciting child sex and facing long prison terms have a serious problem that should not be made light of considering the horrific consequences to the children they try to victimize.
And no, I am not a member of Perverted Justice and rarely watch Dateline.

the pedophiles have had a good ten years head start on the rest of the world in regards to the internet – I have seen them online for fifteen years now going about their business unchallenged until now
it’s about time someone shoved this ugliness in everyones face and yelled LOOK !!! if you have a child and he or she chats online, he or she has met a predator, I guarantee it – they probably didn’t know it
all this is new to people who don’t have computers and the world is very slow to respond
this district attorney is just a careerist who distances himself from anything that might require a spine
think about it, who cares of a tv show helps put away kiddie rapists as long as they get put away
it’s sad that bureaucracies are so slow to recognize the danger to kids online everywhere that it takes a tv show to force people to talk about it

Yes Bill. The organization gets paid a consulting fee by Dateline but the PJ contributors are volunteers who donate their time. PJ doesn’t just do stings for Dateline. They work with police all across the country doing stings with no media involvement and no payment from anyone. The Dateline consulting fees enable them to do so.

I’m still waiting for Bill to support his claims that ‘transcripts were tampered with.’ Also waiting for Bill to explain why the rest of the country is successfully convicting predators with Dateline & PJ supplied evidence, while Bill claims ‘the evidence is clearly illegal and inadmissible.’ Bill, please factually support the claims you’re making with “case law”. EXACTLY what laws are the other DAs and Police around the country breaking? Which transcripts were altered? Why haven’t those convictions been overturned by higher courts? Anyone can make accusations and spread rumors. Can you back up your claims with real facts? ABCs report didn’t factually support those claims.

Shame on you ABC for trying to dicredit what these guys are doing. They are taking PERVERTS off the street!!
It is amazing to me that you would run a story like this. Maybe you are envious that you did not come up with it first. I hope you never have to feel the pain of a loved one falling victim to an internet predator.

Ok, hatin’ on pedophiles aside, this guy did NOT TAKE THE BAIT… if a cop calls me and offers to meet me at Joe’s Crab Shack and buy a pound of marijuana, and I don’t go and don’t make the buy, THERE WAS NO CRIME COMMITTED!
You kill-maim-and-destroy-all-pedos-at-any-cost are voluntarily giving away all of our civil rights to due process. Police have no right to bust down a door without a warrant. Pretty soon this mentality will be applied to other people society deems as “diseased”.
I hope this guy rests in peace. Unlike many of you, I believe that people who are “sick” with any kind of disease like this should be healed, not locked up or mercilessly killed. How many prominent peoples lives destroyed will it take until you realize these people need HELP, not witch-hunt deaths!

I am not surprised that we now see the truth behind NBC and the sting. Not that im for the Pedos, but everyone dosent see the real reson ABC brought this up. ITS RATINGS, NBC got RATINGS, and broke LAWS. You people are Perverted Justice Supporters, and You always invade the public sector to make your shows and selfs look good. Perverted Justice is an operation, and NBC partnered up with them. Agents of the Police, and violations of rights of due process. Do not interview with out reading someone thier rights. You allow this show to go on NBC.. Then you guys will allow media to bust you for everyday crimes. using thier cameras to catch you speeding, smoking something your not suppose to. Open you minds people, its 2007. Kids are smarter that you think. ABC I applaud you, you are making waves and people do not like thier jobs messed with, so perverted justice peeople and supporters write on here to try I MEAN TRY to make you guys look bad.
Amen God bless

We are talking about entrapment here. The people doing the entrapment are perverted justice. They can easily edit their chats to hide illegal entrapment. “Stings” need to be carried out by law enforcement personal, from start to finish. The fact that non-law enforcement people are involved in the most crucial part of the sting; the luring of the person makes every one of them totally flawed. It is the highly inflammatory subject matter that we are dealing with that gets people riled up. Prosecutors, law enforcement and judges don’t want to be seen as not being tough on this type of crime so we have thrown the constitution out the window because we are dealing with something that no one likes. We are a nation of laws and a constitution even when dealing with something we don’t like. Good job ABC, finally someone pointed out the obvious. There is a reason that vigilantism is illegal. Cases against people need to be ENTIRELY carried out by trained law enforcement personal only.

We need to remember that Bill Conradt never went to the decoy house. There is no evidence that he ever hit upon a minor sexually. His “crime” was engaging in dirty talk with a consenting stranger online. According to just about everybody interviewed, Conradt was a good lawyer and a very kind man.
There was no justification whatsoever for Chris Hansen and his goons to show up on Conradt’s property on a Sunday afternoon as they did. The only reason they rushed to Terrell as they did was for Dateline to hurry up with the shoot and get something “juicy and raw.”
I hope Conradt’s sister is awarded the 105 million dollars, and that she then goes after those Perverted Justice sociopaths.
I must also congratulate 20/20 for a very fine expose. Keep up the good work!

Isn’t it possible that someone like Conradt NEVER laid a hand on a minor, but just used the Internet to explore twisted sexual fantasies?
Don’t we all enjoy a certain degree of privacy? Would you, the person reading this, want YOUR computer scoured for “adult” web sites and porn? Would you want a band of loony vigilantes smearing your good name?
I hope what happened in Terrell Texas haunts Chris Hansen for the rest of his journalistic career.

To Steve. Perverted Justice, what a group of freaks. You must have overlooked my posting and a few others trying to make a point. Its about the justice system. Keep the Civilian groups out of the law enforcement sector. And they are running around, because perverted justice and NBC screwed up. And they want to play cop. Get the story straight. Perverted justice plays with evidence, and allows the perv to be let go. Now here is the fun part. Perverted Justice exposes children to porn, by allowing anyone to look at chats on thier website. Now, let the story be told. who works for perverted Justice? who post all this great positive stuff on here about how good NBC was. And how Perverted Justice is great. ABC I hope toy expose all the bad air about NBC and thier stings.. There is ALOT

Something I can’t understand. Why wasn’t anyone charged with attempting to entice the Conradt to come to the house to commit a criminal act against a child. The NBC out takes clearly shows that happened. You can’t use the argument that there was no actual child there. If that argument holds water, then every case would have to be tossed out. Conradt didn’t show up even though he was phoned 3 times. The police chief lied in the interview on 20/20, so that discredits anything else he has said. In the Esquire interview, Chris Hansen looked like one of the predators caught in the sting. If Chris Hansen really wants to do something, let him go to Iraq and do a “To Catch An Insurgent” sting. He may even make an appearance on arab tv.

In response to William above:
One of the many reasons I despise the TCAP show is that Chris Hansen acts like a big man confronting what are essentially lonely, desperate, and in some cases quite pathetic men. The mark of a real hero, however, is taking on somebody one’s own size.
Where, for example, was Hansen during the run-up to the Iraq War, when Bush/Cheney lied through their teeth and sent literally hundreds of thousands of people to their death? He would have done the nation a gigantic favor by confronting George Bush on camera (“Well, Mr. Bush, why don’t you have a seat?”).
Compare Hansen to another well-known journalist, Michael Moore. Whatever bad things can be said about Moore, the fact is that he not only takes on people his own size, but people who are much more powerful. Bush/Cheney, the National Rifle Association, the big drug and insurance companies, for instance. Hansen makes his money deceiving and entrapping men who probably aren’t even pedophiles anyway; a lot of these guys are probably just fantasizing about young, good-looking people online.

To the Law Statue above. The people lured were the people going to the house. No chatlogs state the child being lured anywhere. So if I read it right. NBC and PJ should be cited for luring someone into a house for sex. Minor or not.. ???
Lets turn the tables, and stop this money making show

Last Note! Trolling people to a house for sex, minor or not. Prostitution ! Illegal, Wheres the law there? These people are not law enforcement? PJ NBC. So they were online trolling for johns, illegally. Come on here someone pick this up, this seems like a great lawsuit. Maybe NBC paid these guys in some way to show up for looks? Where are the real chats? Uneditied I mean, no thanks PJ not the ones you have, casue the smart people of the world know you edit all files. Or if your are agents of the police, you need to go to law school, you violated everyones rights, and now you caught bad guys and have no legal grounds cause Miranda Rights were not read before you talked to the people at the house.. OPPPS your mistake, but thats amatures. Get out the Police business. To all DA’s of the states of who are trying to go ahead with this silly game. Sorry you will not get any TV bonuses for not looking into the real chain of steps that needed to be followed correctly before you charge these guys. Open your eyes..

I used to work with Myrick in Allen. I am not at all surprised that this operation went south. While I fully support prosecuting these animals I believe that you have to take care of business. Billie Myrick failed the sting, failed the Department, failed the town and worse he failed his self.

20/20 should be helping Dateline and Perverted Justice in catching these sicko’s from preying on innocent little kids. Men from all backgrounds of education are being caught and they deserve to be tagged as a CHILD PERVERT. We as a whole are trying to teach our children that adults are people that we should feel protected by when we know the difference between wright and wrong. If you have someone like the DA in Texas or the cop that they busted on a show from Flordia, who is supposed to uphold the law by protecting the innocent and convict the guilty, why should we trust people with law power? As the saying goes, “if you do the crime, you will do time.”

Their should be a
Morley Saffer / Chris Hansen
Excellence in journalism
Award!
And give the award to
Journalism students.

It is truly sad when the POLICE capture perverts and NONE OF THEM GET CONVICTED when they have uncoerced CONFESSIONS ON VIDEO!
The PERVs are the victims here???? I cannot believe the how our society is going down the tubes when people defend perverts!! Don’t like the show? DON’T WATCH IT. These people were caught red handed and now let go! What about the lawsuit that is sure to come when a child gets molested IN MURPHY! I am so glad that I do not live there!!
This story is absurd and is absolutely a swipe at the other station. The story should be WHY THE DIST ATTY DID NOT PROSECUTE THESE MEN.

Chris Hansen has proven himself a one-trick pony that should be taken behind the barn and put out of our misery. There are pedophiles on the Internet: we get the point already! Move on! And the fact that you can’t do a story without breaking that format is proof that you need a vacation.
Plus, people here talk about the fact that this is a felony. Well, lots of things are felonies. Insider trading, perjury. Did police rush Scooter Libby’s house with guns drawn and full riot gear? Did they taser Martha Stuart?
And by the way, I’m wondering when Dateline goes full hard core and shows these guys getting sodomized in prison. Given the euphoric feelings of some who’ve already expressed joy at seeing human beings beat down and arrested by the cops, you’d see the ratings spike. And you’re already going to the lowest common denominator, so why stop there?

ABC are coming off like a bunch of whiney crybabies. Dateline made a show that’s worth watching and is still on the air for a good cause, and ABC has to cry and moan about it. So a pedophile shot himself… lets all wheep for this would-be child molester.

Makes me question the ‘true’ motives of the DA who dropped all the charges… Who would put the guys back on the street??? Someone who has something to hide, if you ask me…

the man that killed himself did so because he was embarrassed by his own actions of being a derelict. that isn’t datelines or the polices fault. if he could mistreat children and enjoy the child porn then he should have been man enough to suffer the consequences of being a pervert instead he took the low road yet again and took his own life. his sister should take a good look of what her brother really was. a perverted loser.

It would really be horrible if all the other men that have been prosecuted and waiting prosecution get off and all charges dropped. People don’t care to understand that they could be saving a child.

I attempted to read most comments, one will try to defend how this show may be wrong and what not. This is of course followed by a post about,”how can you stick up for these sickos” blah blah. All I can say on this is you have zero right to say “these people” deserve this unless you yourself are the victim of this crime. Now lets look at facts. Internet, chat room, two people talk about sex, one is an adult and one is a minor. The minor then invites the person to his/her home for sex. Once again if you are angry with people they catch on this show you should be honest and think if you or anyone you know has ever been a victim of the crime I just described.
With that said my view on this show is this, and its not much different from say police putting a civilian in a position to work off charges for the police. Creating a situation for a person, then having them arrested for it is so incredibly idiotic it makes me sick watching the show for ten minutes. The best part is when the cops are interviewing the subject and they say “its illegal to have a chat like this with a minor.” YOU ARE THE FREAKING MINOR ON THE OTHER END OF THE CHAT!! And the whole preventive crap can get crammed up Chris Hansen’s butt. That is a person who deserves zero praise, zero recognition for anything other than a low life who makes his living setting up fake situations that somehow are made real by a bunch of grownup children that have facial hair and clothes they bought themselves, which I guess makes moronic ideas seem smart and just. If you catch someone in the act of violating a minor by all means beat them until you’ve cracked the bones in your hand. This show is not catching someone in the act, its another reason the human race fails itself.
We are all hypocrites. Once again, setting up a situation makes you just as guilty for the final result.

How could the police be manipulated by the media so easily? Im all for pedophiles getting arrested, but in the case of this man who shot himself he didnt show up to the trap. So they call him 3 times and after he doesnt respond they decide to go to his house and get a search warrant to bust down his door and interview him? You guys dont see anything wrong with police busting down this mans door simply for talking dirty online? If if he didnt show up to trap you cant assume he was taking it seriously or messing around. On the other 23 guys who got let off obviously this is wrong since they showed up to the trap therefore their intentions are obvious.

WHEN IF IT HAPPEN TO OUR OWN FAMILY MEMBER THEN WE CARE, BUT WHEN IT COME TO OTHER FAMILY WE CARE VERY LITTLE. WHY DONT WE ASK IF IT IS OUR OWN CHILD IN THE PICTURE. WHAT SHOULD THEY DO TO THE PERVERT. WE DONT RELIES HOW DAMAGEING IT WILL BE TO OUR OWN FAMILY IF WAS ARE FAMILY MEMBER. THE TRUTH IF IT DONT HAPPEN TO OUR FAMILY WE DONT CARE AND THAT IS WRONG. I AM SURE A SMALL PERCENTAGE CARE BUT AT WHAT LEVEL

WHO IS PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN AND IS IT ANOFE PROTECTION. THE PROBLEMS IS NOT THE SHOW. IT IS THERE ARE PERVERT OUT THERE. GO AFTER THEM. THE SHOW GIVE US A REALITY OF HOW THE WORLD WORK IN BAD WAY. WAKE UP A SMILL THE COFFEE AND TASTE THE HEAT WHEN YOU DRINK FROM THE HOT CUP. THAT IS REALTY WE DENIES IT WILL NOT HAPPEN IN OUR FAMILY. WHY NOT ASK CAN WE DEAL WITH IT IF COME.

shame on you NBC , THis program is Bias because only favor to NBC and so call P ??? garbage justice only , who work as a whole team to do such rediculus programs that catch the adult unfaitly !
Post by b3f4school

This guy was a screw up, but I think that the show is borderline unethical. It fills an uncomfortable void in our feelings, who is in the wrong? That’s probably why it is such great television.

some of you people are seriously demented
“good riddance” etc type remarks, to a man you dont even know.
You do know how easy it is to fake chat logs? Type in anything and who is to prove that person didn’t say that line?
Did you ever see this man do any crime? Where was the hurt child.
LAWS are there for a reason. You people do not understand them, you’re brainwashed little children who just don’t know any better. A cop can pull you over and throw 10 different BS charges on you, and you have no choice but to take it. Police ALWAYS lie to help further their case.
1) all the cops shown in to catch a predator were bribed off duty cops
2) there is a thing called entrapment, look it up,
3) No crime was committed, no children were hurt, these people are not really under age, these are paid actors pretending to be under age, the perverted justice leader got paid 500,000 an episode
To further state, about the no crimes were committed. You do realize what they are doing with laws now? You dont even have to do anything illegal, if you just GOOGLE it, youll get arrested soon. Look up ACTA. The next time you google “download free song”, or watch a video on youtube of a part of a movie, you will get locked up and fined. The same goes for child pornorgraphy. If you go on kazaa, and go to download a movie clip of star wars, and you open it up and its really some child porn video, the police know this, and they bate people into downloading the clips this way. You WILL get arrested and WILL get put in jail over it. You did no crime, but the police do not care. They only want you in jail, so they can tally another number into their books.

OMG paranoia will destroy ya…Ahmad MJ as you call him was a pedophile and drug addict. You on the other hand are delusional.