Area residents in 'Dateline' spotlight

02:12 PM CST on Monday, November 6, 2006
By RICHARD ABSHIRE, MARISSA ALANIS and JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News

The former Kaufman County District Attorney committed suicide Sunday when police tried to arrest him at his Terrell home on a warrant tied to a child-predator sting.

Murphy police Sgt. Snow Robertson said Louis “Bill” Conradt Jr. solicted sex from a decoy posing online as a 13-year-old boy.

Murphy Mayor Bret Baldwin said the sting was a joint operation between Perverted Justice and NBC’s Dateline that lured men seeking sex with children to Murphy. Perverted Justice is an Internet watchdog that received national attention after helping Dateline catch dozens of men trolling chat rooms to meet children for sex.

NBC officials said in a statement there was no contact between Mr. Conradt and Dateline. A crew was outside on the street when Mr. Conradt shot himself. Perverted Justice officials did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Sgt. Robertson said there was nothing police could have done to prevent Mr. Conradt, 56, from shooting himself in the head. No one else was in the house.

“When somebody decides to do this, there is nothing you can do,” Sgt. Robertson said. “We did everything we could.”

Murphy police said Mr. Conradt had not gone to the Murphy sting house but they believed he would. Police were attempting to serve a search warrant for his computer equipment and an arrest warrant for soliciting sex with a minor. Law enforcement officials from Terrell, Murphy and the Texas Rangers were at the home.

Records show that Mr. Conradt lived alone.

Mr. Conradt was the Kaufman County district attorney for more than two decades. He gave up his position in 2002 to run for a seat on the bench. He lost. At the time of his death, he was Rockwall County’s chief felony assistant district attorney.

Police forced their way through Mr. Conradt’s front door after he didn’t answer their knocks or his telephone. He was taken by helicopter to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where he died.

Unwanted attention

Neighbors in the Murphy neighborhood where the sting occurred expressed reservations about setting such a trap for child predators.

“How do you tell a 6-year-old why he can’t play outside?” asked Michael Smith, who lives across the street from the house. “You come to a nice neighborhood like this, you don’t expect to have to deal with something like this.”

The neighbors first noticed strangers at the house, putting up Halloween decorations after the holiday had passed, working on streetlights and running cable. Friday, they started seeing strangers pull up and go inside. Some neighbors saw the visitors being arrested. It was unclear how many arrests were made.

They said they resent having possible child molesters drawn into their community.

“They’re solving a problem we don’t have,” said Colleen Halbert.

Mr. Baldwin, the mayor, said he had been in touch with residents and that he and the council were not made aware of the operation beforehand.

Murphy City Council member Murray Sanderford said there will be a special council meeting this week to discuss what happened. The time had not been set late Sunday.

Perverted Justice conducted a similar sting in Murphy during the summer. Then, they caught a retired doctor from Tyler, a business traveler from Missouri, a former sailor who said he is addicted to sex and a Plano office worker. All thought they were going to have sex with a 13- or 14-year-old.

Mr. Baldwin said he hopes Murphy won’t be used again.

“We’re going to do whatever we need to do to make sure this doesn’t continue,” he said. “I think it’s a noble cause, but our police department is hired to serve and protect our citizens, and not to expose them to outside threats.”

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