Nbadan
06-29-2007, 01:23 AM
These cases, though serious, were tainted by amateurism, unprofessionalism and sensationalism on the part of MSNBC...
DA refuses to prosecute ‘Catch a Predator’ cases
Texas official: 'Amateurs' tainted the charges; alleged criminals walk free
MURPHY, Texas - A sting in which police teamed up with “Dateline NBC” to catch online pedophiles was supposed to send a flinty-eyed, Texas-style warning about this Dallas suburb: Don’t mess with Murphy.
Instead, it has turned into a fiasco.
One of the 25 men caught in the sting — a prosecutor from a neighboring county — committed suicide when police came to arrest him.
Story continues below ↓advertisement
The Murphy city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor.
And the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs.
“Certainly these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but the fact that this was all done for television cameras raises some questions,” said Mayor Bret Baldwin.
It is the first time in nine “Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator” stings across the country in the past year and a half that prosecutors did not pursue charges.
“Dateline” has made prime-time entertainment out of contacting would-be child molesters over the Internet, luring them to a meeting place, and videotaping their humiliating confrontations with reporter Chris Hansen.
“Dateline” works with an activist group called Perverted Justice, which supplies adults who troll Internet chat rooms, posing as underage boys and girls, and try to collect incriminating sex talk.
City manager Craig Sherwood approved such an operation in this well-to-do community of 11,000 after being approached by “Dateline” and Perverted Justice, but he never informed the mayor or the City Council.
He said secrecy was necessary for the sting to be effective.
'An out-of-control' show
Over four days in November, 24 men were arrested at a two-story home in one of Murphy’s newer neighborhoods after allegedly arranging to meet boys or girls there.
Some other suspects contacted Perverted Justice decoys online but never showed up at the house.
Among them was Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from neighboring Kauffman County, who allegedly engaged in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy.
As police knocked at his door and a “Dateline” camera crew waited in the street, Conradt shot himself.
His sister, Patricia Conradt, told the City Council that police acted as “a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.”
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19486893)
More...
Ex-"Dateline" producer sues NBC News
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A former "Dateline" producer alleges that she was let go from NBC News after she complained of ethical lapses on the show's pedophile-sting series "To Catch a Predator."
Marsha Bartel of Lincolnshire, Ill., has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Chicago asking for at least $1 million in damages. She alleges that the network breached her contract by failing to pay her through the end of the contract on December 20, 2009.
...
"Ms. Bartel was terminated because she refused to violate a primary objective and facet of her employment (i.e., acting ethically) and because she insisted on compliance with corporate rules designed to ensure accurate news reporting," the lawsuit said, according to a copy on TheSmokingGun.com.
"NBC elected to act in bad faith with respect to its own mandatory employment rules because it was more interested in sensationalizing and dramatizing the 'Predator' series for profit than (for) news reporting."
Reuters (http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-05-31T060655Z_01_N31457300_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-DATELINE-COL.XML&archived=False)
and still more...
"...Chatmag.com has for the past three years, chronicled the shady tactics employed by Perverted-Justice.com, including their "bait and switch" by changing user profiles while involved in conversations via Yahoo! Instant Messenger.
No public chat room conversations are recorded, and only the final one or two Instant Message conversations are presented as "evidence", leaving doubt as to whether the Perverted Justice operator actually began a contact as a minor, or at first entered into a "role play" that changed to precipitate an arrest.
Ms. Bartel, in her complaint, claims that Dateline NBC and Perverted Justice led alleged predators into acts of humiliation. I'd want to see ALL of the chat logs, the public chat room logs, private logs, the entire conversation, from the beginning.
Should the case brought against NBC by Ms. Bartel go forth, and a decision against NBC be handed down, then every single prior case involved in the sting operations should be retried, and include the full testimony of Ms. Bartel. .."
ChatMag (http://www.chatmag.com/news/052907-editorial-dateline-nbc-under-fire.html)
If MSNBC and those perverted justice people are really interested in justice they might want to be a little more careful and maybe work within the law, then maybe they won't risk getting every case dismissed.
DA refuses to prosecute ‘Catch a Predator’ cases
Texas official: 'Amateurs' tainted the charges; alleged criminals walk free
MURPHY, Texas - A sting in which police teamed up with “Dateline NBC” to catch online pedophiles was supposed to send a flinty-eyed, Texas-style warning about this Dallas suburb: Don’t mess with Murphy.
Instead, it has turned into a fiasco.
One of the 25 men caught in the sting — a prosecutor from a neighboring county — committed suicide when police came to arrest him.
Story continues below ↓advertisement
The Murphy city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor.
And the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs.
“Certainly these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but the fact that this was all done for television cameras raises some questions,” said Mayor Bret Baldwin.
It is the first time in nine “Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator” stings across the country in the past year and a half that prosecutors did not pursue charges.
“Dateline” has made prime-time entertainment out of contacting would-be child molesters over the Internet, luring them to a meeting place, and videotaping their humiliating confrontations with reporter Chris Hansen.
“Dateline” works with an activist group called Perverted Justice, which supplies adults who troll Internet chat rooms, posing as underage boys and girls, and try to collect incriminating sex talk.
City manager Craig Sherwood approved such an operation in this well-to-do community of 11,000 after being approached by “Dateline” and Perverted Justice, but he never informed the mayor or the City Council.
He said secrecy was necessary for the sting to be effective.
'An out-of-control' show
Over four days in November, 24 men were arrested at a two-story home in one of Murphy’s newer neighborhoods after allegedly arranging to meet boys or girls there.
Some other suspects contacted Perverted Justice decoys online but never showed up at the house.
Among them was Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from neighboring Kauffman County, who allegedly engaged in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy.
As police knocked at his door and a “Dateline” camera crew waited in the street, Conradt shot himself.
His sister, Patricia Conradt, told the City Council that police acted as “a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.”
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19486893)
More...
Ex-"Dateline" producer sues NBC News
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A former "Dateline" producer alleges that she was let go from NBC News after she complained of ethical lapses on the show's pedophile-sting series "To Catch a Predator."
Marsha Bartel of Lincolnshire, Ill., has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Chicago asking for at least $1 million in damages. She alleges that the network breached her contract by failing to pay her through the end of the contract on December 20, 2009.
...
"Ms. Bartel was terminated because she refused to violate a primary objective and facet of her employment (i.e., acting ethically) and because she insisted on compliance with corporate rules designed to ensure accurate news reporting," the lawsuit said, according to a copy on TheSmokingGun.com.
"NBC elected to act in bad faith with respect to its own mandatory employment rules because it was more interested in sensationalizing and dramatizing the 'Predator' series for profit than (for) news reporting."
Reuters (http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-05-31T060655Z_01_N31457300_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-DATELINE-COL.XML&archived=False)
and still more...
"...Chatmag.com has for the past three years, chronicled the shady tactics employed by Perverted-Justice.com, including their "bait and switch" by changing user profiles while involved in conversations via Yahoo! Instant Messenger.
No public chat room conversations are recorded, and only the final one or two Instant Message conversations are presented as "evidence", leaving doubt as to whether the Perverted Justice operator actually began a contact as a minor, or at first entered into a "role play" that changed to precipitate an arrest.
Ms. Bartel, in her complaint, claims that Dateline NBC and Perverted Justice led alleged predators into acts of humiliation. I'd want to see ALL of the chat logs, the public chat room logs, private logs, the entire conversation, from the beginning.
Should the case brought against NBC by Ms. Bartel go forth, and a decision against NBC be handed down, then every single prior case involved in the sting operations should be retried, and include the full testimony of Ms. Bartel. .."
ChatMag (http://www.chatmag.com/news/052907-editorial-dateline-nbc-under-fire.html)
If MSNBC and those perverted justice people are really interested in justice they might want to be a little more careful and maybe work within the law, then maybe they won't risk getting every case dismissed.