Sister of Man Featured on Dateline's To Catch a Predator Retains Legal Representation

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/17/2007 9:28:00 PM

The sister of a former Texas prosecutor who killed himself after being caught in a pedophile sting orchestrated by Texas authorities and Dateline’s To Catch a Predator has retained legal representation.

Louis "Bill" Conradt, Jr. shot himself last November when police came to arrest him for soliciting sex from someone he believed to be a 13-year-old boy.

A crew from NBC’s Dateline was outside Conradt’s north Texas home at the time.

In a letter of representation sent to NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, Patricia Conradt’s lawyer Bruce Baron, of Baron Associates in Brooklyn, NY, asserts that Patricia Conradt can "successfully pursue… several causes of action against" NBC Universal, including "wrongful death, as well as violation of the decedent’s civil and constitutional rights, extreme emotional distress, conscious pain and suffering, and pecuniary loss to the decedent’s estate, in compensatory and punitive damages exceeding $100 million."

NBC News representatives have repeatedly denied any responsibility in Conradt’s suicide, pointing out that there is no evidence to suggest that Conradt knew that Dateline cameras were there.

"There has been no lawsuit filed on behalf of Mr. Conradt's estate," said an NBC News in a statement. "If a suit is filed, we will defend ourselves vigorously, as we believe the claims are completely without merit."