Judge Allows Suit Blaming NBC News Show for Prosecutor’s Suicide
A federal judge in New York has refused to dismiss a $105 million lawsuit against Dateline NBC that blames a Texas prosecutor’s suicide on the show’s series about child predators.
The suit was filed by Patricia Conradt, whose brother, Louis Conradt Jr., shot himself as television cameras waited to tape his arrest, the New York Times reports. Conradt, an assistant county prosecutor, was accused of soliciting a minor on the Internet in a sex sting.
The Associated Press describes the ruling by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin as “scathing.”
“If the allegations of the amended complaint are proven,” Chin wrote, “a reasonable jury could find that NBC crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement.”
Chin said the network “placed itself squarely in the middle of a police operation, pushing the police to engage in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show.”
NBC News contends it acted lawfully and responsibly, vowing in a statement to defend itself “vigorously.” In its motion to dismiss, NBC had argued it had no duty to protect Conradt from killing himself, the New York Law Journal reports.
