Perverts Walk Free
DA Refuses to Prosecute
By Daniel Muniz

I have to admit that I personally like to watch the television show, Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator. Their producers work with an activist group known as Perverted Justice which tries to bring awareness to the dangers of pedophiles who seek out underage boys and girls. The activism of this organization borders on vigilantism in that they use adults to pose as minors who linger around chat rooms. Invariably, adult men strike up conversations with these decoys which immediately become sexually graphic and then escalate to a rendezvous.

The men drop by the decoy’s house and briefly catch a glimpse of the actor or actress who momentarily steps away. These child molesters usually carry an assortment of condoms, alcohol, and drugs in preparation for a good time. Instead of an afternoon or evening of debauchery, Dateline NBC reporter Chris Hansen steps in with transcripts of the sexually explicit chats that these men have had with the decoys and then he asks what their intent was.

It comes down to pure humiliation as these men try to explain the purpose of their visit.

Some men have excuses that are totally ludicrous while there are a few who admit that they need treatment. And then there are some men who completely break down and cry. Afterwards, the men leave and then are apprehended by law enforcement and charged with crimes.

What is most startling is the cross-section of perverts that show up. They can be young urban professionals, middle-aged men, clergymen, laborers, servicemen, family men, etc.

One particular sting operation took a bizarre turn.

In Murphy Texas, city manager Craig Sherwood approved a sting operation in conjunction with Dateline NBC, Perverted Justice, and the local police department. And to ensure complete secrecy, Sherwood didn’t inform the mayor or city council or anyone else. As usual, it didn’t take long for pedophiles to engage in sexually explicit conversations with the decoys. Two dozen men showed up at the decoy’s house and they were arrested. Some of the men who didn’t show up were still apprehended by police.

One such man was Louis Conradt Jr. who happened to be an assistant prosecutor from a neighboring county. As the police and the Dateline camera crew stood outside his door, this pedophile shot himself.

And the repercussions were almost immediately felt.

The city manager lost his job and the district attorney refused to prosecute the perverts so these pedophiles got to walk away with only the humiliation as their punishment.

The assistant prosecutor’s sister, Patricia Conradt said:

“[The] police acted as a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.”
Source: The Associated Press

I hate it when people use such flimsy excuses like that to explain bad behavior. The police did no such thing. They only knocked on his front door. However, it was the realization of the magnitude of his actions that caused Louis Conradt to kill himself. He instantaneously knew that his entire legal career and all of his accomplishments just got flushed down the toilet now that the entire world knew he was a child molester and was caught red handed.

The only person that Louis Conradt has to blame is himself.

Unfortunately, everybody else has to pay the price for it.

Pedophiles got to walk free because the mayor and the city council of Murphy Texas don’t have the guts to grapple with the seriousness of the crimes that were committed. They were more embarrassed to fight a lawsuit because a miscreant shot himself after it was revealed to the world that he was a pervert.

In the big picture, I am not exactly comfortable with vigilantes but I do accept the role that they play. The way that our society works is that only the squeaky wheel gets greased. All too often, it takes a number of highly publicized violent crimes before politicians allocate resources to law enforcement. Until that happens, certain criminals run rampant and that is exactly the case with online pedophiles. Vigilantes like Perverted Justice bring attention and awareness that child molesters are preying on our children and something has to be done.

Such activism is simply a natural outlet of human behavior to protect us from criminals. However, more action is being taken by law enforcement but at a glacial pace. So until this dilemma is addressed on a bigger scale, we still need Dateline NBC and Perverted Justice to continue to highlight the vast problem of child molesters trolling through cyberspace.

Any opinions or views expressed herein belong solely to the author and does not represent any employer, organization, political party, governmental agency, or any other entity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site owner or its participants.