Billy Myrick

**Billy Myrick** was the former Murphy police chief that gave consent for Dateline NBC to film an edition of **To Catch a Predator** in his town of Murphy, Texas. This would be the first of a series of controversial decisions he would make that would ultimately lead to his firing.

## Biography

In November 2006, Chief Myrick gave Dateline NBC permission to do anti-predator activities in his town. This almost immediately drew controversy from the citizens of the town. The argument made was that instead of deterring child predators into coming to the town that it would actually attract them there. They even held protests outside the sting house. The Collin County D.A.'s office would also not endorse the sting, drafting a letter to Myrick saying they wouldn't support nor cooperate with the sting operation saying, "We are in the law enforcement business, not show business". Myrick supported and defended the operation as it went forward. Operations were going forward without incident until one of the suspected predators, District Attorney Louis Conradt (from neighboring Terrell, TX), stopped communicating with one of the decoys after a two week exchange. Afraid that he had gotten wind of what was going on, the decision was made to go to his home to make an arrest since in Texas, the crime occurs when the communications are made and not when you leave the house. Myrick informed the police chief of Terrell and was met at the Conradt residence by a SWAT team from Terrell as well as Dateline NBC. Afraid he was destroying evidence, the SWAT team breached the house. Conradt would approach with a gun to his head, saying he didn't want to hurt anyone. He then shot himself in the head and subsequently died.

Chief Myrick would immediately come under fire for his handling of the arrest, mainly because by all accounts, it looked as if Dateline NBC had taken over the bust operation. The crew was to return to New York on that day and pushed for the bust to happen before they left. This was denied at first by Chief Myrick and Dateline NBC, but footage obtained by Esquire Magazine showed both Chris Hansen and Frag issuing orders to police officers as well as the Dateline operation set up in front of Conradt's property five hours before an arrest warrant was obtained. The warrant itself was so haphazardly put together that the date of the warrant and county it was to be served in were both incorrect. Myrick was also accused by Esquire of having abused the power the sting gave him when Perverted Justice ran a "proof of concept" sting before official operations began where they arrested a man after a sexually charged chat with a girl he believed to be underaged. Myrick seized the man's SUV he drove to the sting with and used it as his own personal vehicle. Also, the tactics of the police changed between when there were no cameras and when Dateline was filming as this pre-Dateline bust was done quietly without incident whereas police were loud and barking commands with weapons drawn on camera. Finally, Esquire claimed Myrick abandoned his leadership and decision making roles over to Frag, saying, "This is y'all's call on that one."

He would be assaulted with demands for him to hand in his resignation by many concerned citizens of Murphy as well as the city manager of the town. Myrick refused to step down, but when the town got a new city manager in May 2008, one of his first official acts was to fire Myrick.

He would later become a police chief in the town of Eastland, Texas in 2011 and retired in 2016.

## Trivia/Post-Predator Activities

* At the time of the sting, Myrick had only been chief a year and a half and had never been a police chief in any other jurisdiction.
* His father, Billie Myrick, was a famous early rock/folk guitarist who played with such music legends like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Patsy Cline. He was also a policeman like his son. The elder Myrick died in 2011.
* Myrick would become embroiled in yet another sexual predator case gone wrong in Eastland in 2014. His police department had botched an investigation into sexual predator Clayton Lee Fought in 2013 after it was alleged he had assaulted two teenagers. This allowed him to go free and rape and nearly kill another teenage girl the following year. The family of the girl would sue the police department in 2019 due to this.

## References

1. ↑ https://archives.cjr.org/feature/the\_shame\_game.php
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20200310080334/https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a3269/to-catch-a-predator/
3. ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4956588&page=1
4. ↑ https://www.microplexnews.com/2011/10/18/eastland-selects-new-police-chief/
5. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-myrick-0512b21a
6. ↑ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/oaoa/obituary.aspx?n=billie-earl-myrick-bill&pid=149367332
7. ↑ https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article224941580.html
8. ↑ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjTn8DO-bj6AhWuMDQIHQGRAKkQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.star-telegram.com%2Fnews%2Fstate%2Ftexas%2Farticle224941580.html&usg=AOvVaw3RAXI31ZtnRCZVCh3Q8Pkh