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Whether you think that the overall effect of “To Catch a Predator” was positive, negative, or something of a wash, there’s also the fact that the show became the stage for a pretty major tragedy, and that certainly muddies the waters. The tragic event concerned Louis Conradt Jr., a prosecutor who lived east of Dallas, Texas. He found himself in the crosshairs of “To Catch a Predator” after having some sexual conversations with an individual posing as a teenage boy. The police forced their way into his home, and by the end of the ensuing confrontation, Conradt had died by suicide.
Chris Hansen’s response (via Columbia Journalism Review) could definitely be considered cold — “If you’re asking do I feel responsible, no … I sleep well at night” — but the problems run deeper than that. Later investigations found that the entire operation was botched, particularly because paperwork was filed incorrectly, which would’ve invalidated court proceedings, had it gone that far. Locals also hated the whole ordeal, feeling that the show had brought lawbreakers to their homes, rather than just exposing them.
Other lawyers weighed in, too, explaining that the police shouldn’t have forced their way into Conradt’s home at all; typical protocol was to have such confrontations away from the home, specifically to avoid these kinds of outcomes. Shortly afterward, it became another not-so-untold and uncomfortable truth of “Dateline” that Conradt’s sister accused them of being responsible for his death, saying that a ploy to chase ratings made a tragedy out of a situation that was never an emergency to begin with.
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