Perverted DA eats a bullet

[wingnutx]

(11/06/06 - TERRELL, TX) - Former Kaufman County District Attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. killed himself Sunday as police tried to serve an arrest warrant for soliciting sex with a minor, authorities said.

Police who entered Conradt's home when he refused to answer the door heard a shot and found Conradt fatally wounded with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at a Dallas hospital.

Murphy police Sgt. Snow Robertson said Conradt had solicited sex from a decoy posing online as a 13-year-old. Murphy police were attempting to serve a search warrant for his computer and the arrest warrant when Conradt shot himself.

The Dallas Morning News reported in its online editions Sunday that the sting that resulted in Conradt's arrest warrant was a joint operation between Perverted Justice, an Internet watchdog group, and NBC's "Dateline" that lured men seeking sex with children to a house in Murphy.


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=state&id=4731519

[Vodka7]

And in related news:

The longtime pastor of a Presbyterian church in Ben Avon who was the subject of a KDKA-TV investigation into what the station called "reports of public and illegal sexual behavior" committed suicide yesterday.

The body of the Rev. Brent Dugan, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon, was found in a motel room in Mercer County, according to the Mercer County coroner's office.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06308/735680-54.stm

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

How are these two stories related?

[wingnutx]

They are both people in positions of authority who killed themselves when accused of sexual misconduct.

[Nightfall]

Well, I don't think that could have gone any better! No tax dollars spent on a trial, and children everywhere are safer. Nice.

[Vodka7]

How are these two stories related?

Are you posting this for any reason other than to be difficult?  Like wingnutx said, both stories are about prominent figures who killed themselves because a news program outed their deviancies.

[Joe Demko]

Is this the same lying, liberal media that I am told every day pisses an ocean of disinformation in my ear?  But this time, because there's illicit sex involved, they are the flawless fount of truth?
Ya'll amaze me.

[ilbob]

It does not seem likely anyone would eat a gun over this kind of disclosure unless the allegations were substantially true.

In some respects they have taken the high road. They know what they did, and perhaps decided to spare the rest of us from the gory and expensive details of dealing with them in the legal system. would that all criminals would do the same.

[wingnutx]

PJ is not a media outlet, and neither is Terrell Police Department.

[Joe Demko]

Just remember, if it was reported in the paper, on TV, or on the Web, it must be true.  Gawdamighty, are you not the same bunch who regularly rail with great anger and vituperation agin' the libral media?  Just say the magic words "sex crime" though, and suddenly folks deserve to die?  I work in a field where you ca have your career demolished by an unsubstantiated accusation.  Outlets like KDKA will gleefully report_at length_ when you're accused.  They'll give it passing notice, if at all, when you're acquitted.  It's not that hard to imagine a guy killing himself rather than be part of that media orgy.   I don't know if either of these guys was guilty or innocent, I do know I'm not going to stroke myself over their deaths when all I know is what was incompletely reported.  YMMV.

[Ron]

Gawdamighty, are you not the same bunch who regularly rail with great anger and vituperation agin' the libral media?

Why is this Forum always attacked for being right wing? We have had some excellent debates with all sides POLITELY debating and accounted for.

You guys are coming over from L@P at THR with a chip on your shoulder. You have lots a friends here but they all don't enjoy the L@P type slugfests.

This is not to my way of seeing it a "conservative" forum board.

[Perd Hapley]

Demko, too much coffee for you, man.  The old media has a leftist slant, this we know.  I fail to see what that has to do with anything.  Are you saying the cops are covering something up?  Or do you suggest that Dan Rather had these men killed and then wrote stories about their suicides?  Or do you just not get enough conservative-bashing on THR?

[Joe Demko]

What I'm saying is that it distresses me that as long as the "sex offender" flag is waved, people I know to be intelligent are disgustingly willing to believe anything that the media reports.  These same people are gratifyingly discerning on other topics because they understand good and well that if it bleeds it leads.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I kinda agree with Demko to a degree (where'd I put that flamesuit???)

The reason I say that is because it is so easy to imagine someone who was innocent being falsely accused, and rather than face the never-ending doubt and assassination of character that would ensue, deciding to end it all, especially if this person was already depressed.

However, if they were guilty of what they were accused, then good riddance.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

How are these two stories related?

Are you posting this for any reason other than to be difficult?  Like wingnutx said, both stories are about prominent figures who killed themselves because a news program outed their deviancies.

I misread his original remarks.  I thought that he was aware of some connection between the two stories, not just a cursory similarity.  Say, for instance, that the two pervs knew each other and collaborated, or the same sting caught both of them, or the same news organization was involved, or something like that.

It was a momentary brain lapse that I didn't realize he was simply referring to the similarity between the events.

Forgive me for being "difficult". 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I think Demko makes a good point.  We tend to hide our BS meters whenever stories of child predators come up.  Maybe we shouldn't.

[Antibubba]

FWIW, I tend to think that they wouldn't have offed themselves if they were innocent.

I just have to think a DA would know better than this, but sexual drive is no small thing to fight.

[Perd Hapley]

I think Demko makes a good point.  We tend to hide our BS meters whenever stories of child predators come up.  Maybe we shouldn't.

Huh?

My BS meter works when something is at stake.  If the news tells me that politician X was caught in crime Y, I admit I give more or less credence to the report depending on my political bias.  When the media is frothing at the mouth that 9 out of 10 children are being molested, I might think they're just fabricating a headline for the sake of their bottom line.  But when some unknown person is charged with child molestation or robbing a liquor store or being commended for rescuing a child from a burning house, I usually assume it's true, because that's all the evidence I have.  If I'm going to be that skeptical, I might as well assume that every word I hear is a lie.  No one lives that way.  It's not possible.  They could be going for a cheap headline, but what if they are?  I'm not voting based on that story.  I'm not writing letters to the editor about the issue.  I'm just blabbing about it on an internet forum. 

[Joe Demko]

Several years ago, a friend of mine left the teaching profession because of an unsubstantiated accusation of which I'm pretty sure he was innocent.  "Sexual predator" is in many ways the modern equivalent of crying "Witch!"  Careers and lives are ruined by the mere accusation because too many people, aided by sensationalistic journalists, immediately lose all objectivity.

[Cosmoline]

It does not seem likely anyone would eat a gun over this kind of disclosure unless the allegations were substantially true.

That's very naive, I'm afraid.  A former DA might well know enough about the system to understand eating a bullet is the best option when faced with such accusations, whether or not they're true, a misunderstanding or an outright lie. Once the charges are made and press reports filed, you're finished no matter what happens.  Even if you win the cloud will cover you for life.  If you did screw up and are facing felony charges, your only real choices are putting one in your brain pan or getting the cops to do it for you.  Death is infinitely preferable to even a few years hard time and a conviction. 

[Lee]

A Lawyer worried enough about a tarnished reputation from false charges to shoot himself?  Would never happen.  The guy was caught...he knew it...and he imposed the death penalty on himself.