Lawsuit Against NBC for "To Catch A Predator" Suicide Allowed to Proceed
A woman who claims that a sting operation by "Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator" drove her brother to kill himself is suing NBC for $105-million, and a federal judge ruled that the case can proceed on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said a jury might conclude the network "crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement."
Louis William Conradt Jr., a suburban Dallas prosecutor, fatally shot himself after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy, according to a lawsuit filed by his sister.
In the lawsuit, Patricia Conradt accused NBC of putting pressure on police to arrest her brother after telling police he failed to show up at a sting operation 50 kilometres away. Her lawsuit is based on an argument that the suicide was foreseeable, and that NBC acted with deliberate indifference.
Chin wrote that a reasonable jury could find there was no legitimate law enforcement need for a heavily armed SWAT team to extract a 56-year-old prosecutor from his home when he was not accused of any actual violence and was not believed to have a gun.
I can't figure out how this could be NBC's liability. They can't force the police to use violence to arrest somebody. In fact, they're not supposed to be allowed to make them arrest anybody for anything! Perhaps the guns were not necessary for the arrest, but guns are what they use to arrest people. I don't tend to think that excessive force makes the experience any more embarrassing than it would be for any other one of those arrested on the show.
According to the judge, "A
reasonable jury could find that by [sensationalizing the event], NBC created a substantial
risk of suicide or other harm, and that it engaged in conduct so
outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it."
NBC's part in it was turning it into a media circus. I live in Dallas, just outside where this took place and know well what happened. He looked out his window, saw a ton of cops and a news camera and ate a bullet. NBC spurred this on; disappointed that he didn't show for the meet with the "child" they urged the police to go arrest him (for what, I don't know - no transcripts of any chat he engaged in have been published). Rather than go with a couple of officrs and quietly take him in (which would be standard procedure for someone in his position, possibly a call to his lawyer first to arrange it all) the whole thing was blown out of propoertion.
All so NBC could raise their ratings. S NBC could capitalize on the overweening hysteria regarding anything involved children.
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NBC's part in it was turning it into a media circus. I live in Dallas, just outside where this took place and know well what happened. He looked out his window, saw a ton of cops and a news camera and ate a bullet. NBC spurred this on; disappointed that he didn't show for the meet with the "child" they urged the police to go arrest him (for what, I don't know - no transcripts of any chat he engaged in have been published). Rather than go with a couple of officrs and quietly take him in (which would be standard procedure for someone in his position, possibly a call to his lawyer first to arrange it all) the whole thing was blown out of propoertion.
All so NBC could raise their ratings. S NBC could capitalize on the overweening hysteria regarding anything involved children. Do you seriously think NBC cares anything at all about "protecting the children?" They are care about ratings and appeasing their stockholders, just as Exxon doesn't care if you can't afford to put food on the table.
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