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The town of Murphy in Collin County became big news last fall after it was the location for a highly publicized sting designed to catch sexual predators, which became the subject of two NBC To Catch a Predator shows. The sting was also behind the suicide of a former Kaufman County district attorney.

However, information has arisen that indicates that after the television crews left, little happened to the alleged sexual predators.

While there were 24 arrests, little has become of the cases. Reports also reveal that the legality of the sting was questioned before it went down, and that a key search warrant was invalid.

The news has led critics, inside and outside the legal system, to ask whether the sting was about law enforcement or making a TV show.

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Decoys posed as a young boy or girl, and the sexual predators arrived, only to be taken down. The stings were documented from every conceivable angle.

The operation took place at a house located in Murphy, which is just east of Plano, over four days in November. Dateline NBC, a group called Perverted Justice and the Murphy Police Department were all involved in the stings. Perverted Justice describes itself as on the frontline in the crusade against internet predators.

During the operation, NBC, which received good rating from the show, pays Perverted Justice to run the chats.

From the beginning, some members of the area were angry about the sting's location and purpose.

"They turned something that was good, to catch the predators, into just a reality show," said Jill Lambouses, a neighborhood resident.

Months later, some are still mad.

"Somebody's trying to make a name for themselves, and this is what happens," said Bill Albright, another resident in the area. "I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

He isn't alone in his criticisms.

"This was not a direct police engagement," said resident Bill Carley. "This was a television show that recruited some local police."

As a law enforcement effort, the operation had minimal results. Few of the alleged predators came from Murphy, and Murphy police officers who were involved said evidence was poorly gathered and paperwork botched.

The information comes after Murphy police were pre-warned against the project.

A letter revealed that Collin County Assistant District Attorney Chris Milner was concerned about media involvement in the sting before it went down. He wrote it as a response to an inquiry from Murphy police Chief Billy Myrick and "Frag," the assistant director of Perverted Justice. It dated a few days before the operation.

"Please understand that the Collin County District Attorney's Office has had no part, and will take no part, in the planning or execution of the sting operation ... We must take pains not to implicitly authorize or direct non-law enforcement entities to act as our agents during law enforcement operations," the note read.

The letter also said the Collin County District Attorney's Office is "in the law enforcement business, not show business."

Immediately after the sting, Murphy City Manager Craig Sherwood released a statement to News 8.

"We were not involved with the TV cameras or the sting house," Sherwood stated. "Murphy police were there to make the arrests."

But information indicates otherwise.

Murphy residents and police say the Police Department helped Dateline find a location for the stings and even proposed one house, which Dateline rejected. Murphy police gave Dateline total access to the police station and allowed NBC to place cameras in interview rooms.

Shots from the show also revealed that Murphy police may have actually worn a camera for NBC.

"We do not comment on the details of our news gathering," NBC said in response to inquiries about the operation.

Meanwhile, residents question just who was using who.

"They're a prop," Carley said of the police in the sting. "That's exactly what they are. They're an actor or a prop."

And one former officer, Sam Love, who appeared in the show, agreed.

"My opinion is the TV people were using the police," Love said.

One concern Love expressed was that Murphy police let NBC show evidence onTV before the cases went to court.

The evidence itself is also in question. Since some of the Internet chatters that were busted were from out of state, cases may not be valid in Collin County.

"It would have been nice if there had been a little more planning and preparation at the outset," said Walter Weiss, another former Murphy police officer.

After the TV crews left, Weiss' job was to make cases against those arrested; but he said he soon discovered Murphy officers did not follow a fundamental practice, which is write arrest reports

"They had to go back into position to arrest another," Weiss said. "The environment was fast paced."

The cases are stalled, and Weiss said he feels he is getting blamed for the failure of a botched operation.

"I had to put these cases together," he said. "I was not responsible for how these cases were planned or executed. There's a lot of political heat that came down on the chief of police."

Chief Myrick made himself available for the Dateline cameras and made an arrest on the air, but he declined to be interviewed.

The outcome of the sting lingers, including former Kaufman County District Attorney Bill Conrad's suicide. He killed himself after police knocked on his door.

Perverted Justice chatters said he solicited a minor on an online chat with them, and Murphy police then got a warrant to search his house in Terrell. But the search warrant was issued for Euless, not Terrell, and for July, not November.

Weiss said the paperwork was a rush job.

"I strongly suspect they wanted to put a news camera in front of a house to record what they believed was a big fish being caught," he said.

Monday night, Sherwood told the Murphy City Council that six cases from the operation have now been resubmitted to the Collin County District Attorney for possible prosecution.

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com