Prosecutor kills himself in Texas raid over child sex

A prosecutor in this North Texas town killed himself Sunday as the police tried to arrest him on charges of soliciting sex over the Internet from a person he thought was a 13-year-old boy. The prosecutor, Louis Conradt Jr., 56, had been caught in a sting operation set up by Dateline NBC, the television news magazine, and an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice. An NBC camera crew was outside the house to film the scene when the fatal shot was fired. [...]

Xavier Von Erck, director of operations with Perverted Justice, said Mr. Conradt had made contact in an AOL chat room with a decoy from Perverted Justice who was posing as a 13-year-old boy. Mr. Von Erck would not disclose the details of the chat, but he said, "It was sexual in nature." [...]

Sergeant Robertson said the police in his town of 3,100 had apprehended 22 other people in stings since last Thursday, mostly from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with the help of Perverted Justice. He said more would be arrested in the coming days.

source: Article 'Prosecutor Kills Himself in Texas Raid Over Child Sex' by Tim Eaton; www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/us/07pedophile.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=us&pagewanted=print; The New York Times; 7 November 2006