Judge allows 'Dateline' lawsuit
Woman claims show caused brother's suicide
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin permitted a $105 million lawsuit against NBC to go to trial, saying a jury might conclude the network "crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement.''
Louis William Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor in suburban Dallas, fatally shot himself after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy, according to a lawsuit filed by his sister.
In the lawsuit, Patricia Conradt said NBC "steamrolled'' police to arrest her brother after telling police he failed to show up at a sting operation 35 miles away.
NBC was working with the activist group Perverted Justice on the sting, in which officers impersonating underage girls established online chats with men and tried to lure them to a house, where they were met by TV cameras and police.
Chin said the lawsuit contained sufficient facts to make it plausible that the suicide was foreseeable, that police had a duty to protect Conradt from killing himself and that the officers and NBC acted with deliberate indifference.
In a statement, NBC News said: "We think the evidence will ultimately show that 'Dateline' acted responsibly and lawfully, and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously."
Chin said in his ruling that 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.''
