Major Lawsuit To Continue Against NBC
February 26, 2008

A major $100 million lawsuit against NBC Universal Inc will move forward after a ruling came down today by a U.S. federal judge. The suit claims that MBC Universal is responsible for the suicide of a former Texas prosecutor who was a suspected pedophile and the focus of Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series. The entire drama was well-documented in an article in Esquire. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin dismissed some causes of the action but agreed that the key claims of the sister of Louis Conradt, an assistant district attorney, can move forward. Reuters reported the details of the 40-page ruling today.

Chin ruled that if the intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights that the plaintiffs are alleging were proven that "a reasonable jury could find that NBC crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement. Rather than merely report on law enforcement's efforts to combat crime, NBC purportedly instigated and then 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, majority-owned by General Electric Co., asserted that the company plans to defend themselves to the end. Jenny Tartikoff said in an e-mailed statement reprinted by Reuters, "We think the evidence will ultimately show that 'Dateline' acted responsibly and lawfully. The judge's ruling was based solely on the plaintiff's version of the facts. For purposes of this motion only, the judge was required, under the law, to accept the plaintiff's allegations as true."

Louis Conradt shot himself in November of 2006 as he was being confronted by police officers at his home in Texas. The officers were there with an NBC crew filming an episode of Dateline. Patricia Conradt, the sister of the deceased, claims that Dateline is responsible for his death. However, NBC claims that they had no duty to protect Conradt and that they had no control over his suicide.

(Source: Reuters)

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