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2 corrections found
Every single person on To Catch a Predator not only solicited a minor online but actually showed up to a second location
At least one person featured on "To Catch a Predator" did not go to the sting house. Bill Conradt was included in the Murphy, Texas episode even though he never showed up at the meeting location.
Full reasoning
This absolute claim is incorrect because not every person featured on To Catch a Predator went to the second-location sting house.
A documented counterexample is Louis (Bill) Conradt Jr.:
- The NYU Undercover Reporting archive's entry for the February 13, 2007 "To Catch A Predator: Murphy, Texas" episode says that episode "includes the controversial attempt to arrest D.A. Louis Conradt".
- Reporting from Broadcasting+Cable says "Conradt failed to show up at the Predator sting location" and that Dateline and Murphy police instead went to his house.
- The Los Angeles Times likewise reports that "Unlike other targets, he never came to the sting house."
Because Conradt was part of a To Catch a Predator episode despite not showing up to the second location, the claim that "Every single person" on the show did so is false.
3 sources
- XIV- "To Catch A Predator: Murphy, Texas" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline · Undercover Reporting
Description: This episode of To Catch A Predator includes the controversial attempt to arrest D.A. Louis Conradt, who committed suicide as a SWAT team approached him.
- NBC Settles Predator Lawsuit | Next TV | Broadcasting+Cable
But when Conradt failed to show up at the Predator sting location, Dateline correspondent Chris Hanson, with cameras in tow, went to his house with Murphy police officers.
- Why Chris Hansen hasn't seen the new film about 'To Catch a Predator' - Los Angeles Times
Bill Conradt ... Unlike other targets, he never came to the sting house.
OVER HALF were utterly unprosecutable
The public record does not support a claim that "over half" of the show's cases were impossible to prosecute. Contemporary reporting described hundreds of arrests and prosecutions, with the famously botched Murphy, Texas cases numbering about two dozen, not a majority.
Full reasoning
This overstates the legal fallout from To Catch a Predator by a wide margin.
Contemporaneous CNN reporting in July 2007 said Chris Hansen stated that, over three years of investigations, 286 men had surfaced, 256 had been arrested, and 117 had already pleaded guilty or been convicted. The same report says the Texas district attorney declined charges against "any of the two dozen people" caught in the botched Murphy sting.
Those numbers do not support a claim that "over half" of the show's targets were "utterly unprosecutable." Even taking the Murphy failure as real, that's roughly two dozen cases out of 286 surfaced men—not anything close to a majority.
Later reporting in Legal News on Hansen's 2011 remarks to a bar conference went further, stating: "Over the course of 12 investigations, all 300 men were prosecuted." Whether one uses the 2007 CNN figures or the later 2011 summary, the available record contradicts the claim that more than half of the cases were simply unprosecutable.
A more accurate characterization is that some stings—especially Murphy, Texas—created serious prosecutorial problems, but the show as a whole did not produce a majority of cases that were impossible to prosecute.
3 sources
- CNN.com - Transcripts
We`ve had in three years -- 286 men have surfaced in our investigations, 256 have been arrested. As of now, 117 men have either pleaded guilty, been convicted by a judge or a jury. ... the DA in the Texas county where the sting took place said the Dateline operation was botched and he refused to press charges against any of the two dozen people Dateline nabbed.
- Legal News > Your source for information behind the law
Everybody gets his day in court, Hansen said. Over the course of 12 investigations, all 300 men were prosecuted, with results ranging from probation to 24 years in prison.
- Have a Seat: 'To Catch a Predator' Returns As Feature in Syndicated Series
More than 300 suspects were arrested during the period the series aired.