11-6-2006 Texas:
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. He is currently 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 and Dateline 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.”
..more.. By RICHARD ABSHIRE, MARISSA ALANIS and JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
Former Kaufman D.A. commits suicide amid (Dateline) sex sting
Updated: 4-18-2007 *** 5-9-2007
Posted in this blog also to show "Media Vigilantism"
11-6-2006 Texas:
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. He is currently 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 and Dateline 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.”
Men charged with the offense of on-line solicitation of a minor in Murphy stings:
1. Eric Rubalcava, age 31 from Houston;
2. John Baker, age 25 from Frisco;
3. Stanley Kendall, age 54 from Mesquite;
4. Timothy Gilliam, age 32 from Flower Mound;
5. Asif Khokar, age 27 from Houston;
6. Samuel Tanguma, age 27 from Grand Prairie;
7. Steve Rosello, age 32 from Kennedale;
8. Edward Hollingsworth, age 35 from Dallas;
9. Milan Mehta, age 46 from Richardson;
10. Sajjad Mohammad, age 43 from MURPHY
11. David Pann, age 40 from Lewisville;
12. Alan Chernnay, age 58 from Plano;
13. William Dow, age 63 from Carrollton;
14. Kevin Carroll, age 37 from Carrollton;
15. Jose Soto, age 54 from Mesquite;
16. Christopher Cothrum, age 23 from Westworth Village;
17. Justin Estes, age 27 from Plano;
18. Paulo Deassuncao, age 37 from McKinney;
19. Timothy Knowles, age 35 from Euless;
20. Patrick Parr, age 33 from Frisco;
21. Randall Wolford, age 52 from Whitewright; and
22. Louis W. Conradt, age 56 from Terrell
..more.. By RICHARD ABSHIRE, MARISSA ALANIS and JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
Man in online sex sting gets 5 years
4-19-2007 Texas:
A 61-year-old Tyler man was sentenced to five years in federal prison Wednesday for attempting to solicit sex from a decoy posing online as a 14-year-old Murphy girl.
Ali Vagefi pleaded guilty to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor in February after having sexually explicit online chats with a volunteer for a controversial Internet watchdog group.
Murphy police arrested Mr. Vagefi in July after the volunteer for Perverted Justice reported that Mr. Vagefi asked to meet his decoy's online persona at a Murphy convenience store so they could have sex. The volunteer asked Mr. Vagefi to bring a stuffed animal as a gift.
When police arrested Mr. Vagefi at the store, he had a teddy bear and condoms. He was one of three men arrested last summer after Perverted Justice volunteers notified police about online predators in the Murphy area.
"That'll be time that at least kids are safe from that one person," Murphy City Manager Craig Sherwood said of Mr. Vagefi's five-year sentence.
In November, the online group and city officials angered residents after they partnered with Dateline NBC in a four-day sting at a Murphy home that led to more than 20 arrests. Former Kaufman County District Attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. killed himself when police tried to arrest him at his Terrell home on a warrant that stemmed from that sting.
In a three-hour City Council meeting, many residents expressed anger at the sting. They said police lured child predators to a neighborhood full of kids. Others supported police and city officials.
Mr. Sherwood said that while there are no plans for a similar sting operation, that doesn't mean there never will be.
"We want to make Murphy known as being one of the safest communities in North Texas, and to that extent we'll take actions to try and achieve that," he said.
..more.. By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
Validity of Murphy predator stings under scrutiny
5-9-2007 Texas:
The town of Murphy in Collin County became big news last fall after it was the location for a highly publicized sting designed to catch sexual predators, which became the subject of two NBC To Catch a Predator shows. The sting was also behind the suicide of a former Kaufman County district attorney.
However, information has arisen that indicates that after the television crews left, little happened to the alleged sexual predators.
While there were 24 arrests, little has become of the cases. Reports also reveal that the legality of the sting was questioned before it went down, and that a key search warrant was invalid.
The news has led critics, inside and outside the legal system, to ask whether the sting was about law enforcement or making a TV show.
From all accounts, it's justice in action. Men were caught red-handed soliciting minors over the internet, and arrested after showing up for sex with an underage chat room pen pal.
Decoys posed as a young boy or girl, and the sexual predators arrived, only to be taken down. The stings were documented from every conceivable angle.
The operation took place at a house located in Murphy, which is just east of Plano, over four days in November. Dateline NBC, a group called Perverted Justice and the Murphy Police Department were all involved in the stings. Perverted Justice describes itself as on the frontline in the crusade against internet predators.
During the operation, NBC, which received good rating from the show, pays Perverted Justice to run the chats.
From the beginning, some members of the area were angry about the sting's location and purpose.
"They turned something that was good, to catch the predators, into just a reality show," said Jill Lambouses, a neighborhood resident.
Months later, some are still mad.
"Somebody's trying to make a name for themselves, and this is what happens," said Bill Albright, another resident in the area. "I don't like it. I don't like it at all."
He isn't alone in his criticisms.
"This was not a direct police engagement," said resident Bill Carley. "This was a television show that recruited some local police."
As a law enforcement effort, the operation had minimal results. Few of the alleged predators came from Murphy, and Murphy police officers who were involved said evidence was poorly gathered and paperwork botched.
The information comes after Murphy police were pre-warned against the project.
A letter revealed that Collin County Assistant District Attorney Chris Milner was concerned about media involvement in the sting before it went down. He wrote it as a response to an inquiry from Murphy police Chief Billy Myrick and "Frag," the assistant director of Perverted Justice. It dated a few days before the operation.
"Please understand that the Collin County District Attorney's Office has had no part, and will take no part, in the planning or execution of the sting operation ... We must take pains not to implicitly authorize or direct non-law enforcement entities to act as our agents during law enforcement operations," the note read.
The letter also said the Collin County District Attorney's Office is "in the law enforcement business, not show business."
Immediately after the sting, Murphy City Manager Craig Sherwood released a statement to News 8.
"We were not involved with the TV cameras or the sting house," Sherwood stated. "Murphy police were there to make the arrests."
But information indicates otherwise.
Murphy residents and police say the Police Department helped Dateline find a location for the stings and even proposed one house, which Dateline rejected. Murphy police gave Dateline total access to the police station and allowed NBC to place cameras in interview rooms.
Shots from the show also revealed that Murphy police may have actually worn a camera for NBC.
"We do not comment on the details of our news gathering," NBC said in response to inquiries about the operation.
Meanwhile, residents question just who was using who.
"They're a prop," Carley said of the police in the sting. "That's exactly what they are. They're an actor or a prop."
And one former officer, Sam Love, who appeared in the show, agreed.
"My opinion is the TV people were using the police," Love said.
One concern Love expressed was that Murphy police let NBC show evidence onTV before the cases went to court.
The evidence itself is also in question. Since some of the Internet chatters that were busted were from out of state, cases may not be valid in Collin County.
"It would have been nice if there had been a little more planning and preparation at the outset," said Walter Weiss, another former Murphy police officer.
After the TV crews left, Weiss' job was to make cases against those arrested; but he said he soon discovered Murphy officers did not follow a fundamental practice, which is write arrest reports
"They had to go back into position to arrest another," Weiss said. "The environment was fast paced."
The cases are stalled, and Weiss said he feels he is getting blamed for the failure of a botched operation.
"I had to put these cases together," he said. "I was not responsible for how these cases were planned or executed. There's a lot of political heat that came down on the chief of police."
Chief Myrick made himself available for the Dateline cameras and made an arrest on the air, but he declined to be interviewed.
The outcome of the sting lingers, including former Kaufman County District Attorney Bill Conrad's suicide. He killed himself after police knocked on his door.
Perverted Justice chatters said he solicited a minor on an online chat with them, and Murphy police then got a warrant to search his house in Terrell. But the search warrant was issued for Euless, not Terrell, and for July, not November.
Weiss said the paperwork was a rush job. (COPY OF WARRANT)
"I strongly suspect they wanted to put a news camera in front of a house to record what they believed was a big fish being caught," he said.
Monday night, Sherwood told the Murphy City Council that six cases from the operation have now been resubmitted to the Collin County District Attorney for possible prosecution.
..more.. by BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
