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Perverted Justice founder Xavier Von Erck, left, talks with Byron Harris.

NBC News faces a potential $100 million lawsuit over its TV show "To Catch A Predator," shot in the Collin County town of Murphy last fall.

The network was served with a warning letter on Tuesday, charging NBC with negligence in the sex sting.

The sting ended when former Kaufman County district attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. killed himself as police initiated a search of his house. Conradt's constitutional rights were violated, his sister charged in her legal action.

Collin County District Attorney John Roach was concerned about civil rights in the case, too. News 8 broke the story that he would not prosecute the 23 men arrested in the sting.

Another of his worries was the business relationship between NBC and the group Perverted Justice and their impact on Murphy.

Law enforcement, money and television are all a part of "To Catch a Predator."

From the beginning, some Murphy citizens didn't like Perverted Justice setting up stings with Internet decoys in their neighborhood. Perverted Justice staged those stings, and got paid by the TV network.

Until now, neither one of them has talked to us.

"I wish the prosecutors in Collin County would get their story straight. Their story has changed tremendously from Week One 'til now," said Xavier Von Erck, the 27-year-old founder of Perverted Justice.

Some call him a vigilante. Some call him a public servant.

Von Erck sees his group as a companion to law enforcement, and he has little patience with those who question his motives.

"I know you're old and you don't have much life left," he said to this reporter. "But when you walk up to me and get in my face and tell me I'm getting in your face—then we have a problem. So you just hold right here."

Von Erck then accused me of spitting in his face. "Please keep your dribble to yourself," he said.

Von Erck represents one leg of a triangle that came together in the production of "To Catch a Predator." The other legs are NBC News and Murphy police.

All say they are in business to help the public, but each gets another reward from the TV show:

• Perverted Justice gets money.
• NBC gets ratings.
• The Murphy Police Department got famous.

"Murphy, Texas is a well-known name now," District Attorney Roach said. "Not for the reasons they would have liked, but it certainly is."

Roach has been criticized on the Internet for asking the questions nobody else would.

When Murphy police arrested 23 men while making "To Catch a Predator," Roach asked where the arrest warrants were.

There were none.

Roach questioned the financial relationship between NBC and Perverted Justice. He questioned why Murphy Police had no arrest reports.

When he got no answers, he declined to prosecute the cases.

"The future will look very bad for them, and I wish they would get their story straight," Von Erck said.

For a person whose stated mission is to serve the public, Xavier Von Erck obscures a lot of information about himself.

He has changed his name.

He can be reached only on the Internet.

He failed to show up in a case against him in connection with another sting in New Mexico.

His group failed to provide vital evidence—the total chat logs of the Murphy stings, according to the Collin County DA.

After Von Erck failed to respond to our e-mails, we tracked him down him at a law enforcement convention in Cleveland. We wanted to know how much he was paid by NBC per show.

"That really is not relevant to the prosecution, and at the end of the day, that's an issue for accountants and not for us," he replied.

John Roach knew the money issue would come up in court as part of the required disclosure of benefits received by possible witnesses. "What is the deal between NBC and Perverted Justice? Who's getting paid what?" Roach asked.

When the Collin DA's office asked for the contract between the two parties, Perverted Justice—far from cooperating—said the DA would have to get the document from the group's theatrical agent.

Chris Hansen represents the second leg of the TV triangle. He's the NBC man who asks the questions of alleged sexual predators when they've been caught by TV cameras.

"I'm there as a reporter doing the story," Hansen told News 8.

As the show's ratings improve, Hansen's fortune rises and NBC makes more money.

Hansen says that NBC is separate from Perverted Justice, despite the fact that the group gets paid by the network.

"Their decoys go into chat rooms. They provide us the chat logs, so we can do our interview when the people show up," Hansen explained. He said his part of the investigation is to read the chats provided by Perverted Justice.

"In this case, that's part of what we do to investigate, yes," Hansen said.

The Murphy Police Department is supposed to be an independent law enforcement organization. But Hansen admits that Murphy officers wore TV cameras for NBC.

Despite that—10 months after the sting—NBC has failed to voluntarily turn over the bulk of its videotape to the Collin County District Attorney.

So what's the difference between "To Catch a Predator" and a reality TV show?

"I would say that this is an investigative TV show investigating online predators," Hansen said. "A reality show is produced by the entertainment division."

Murphy police have not returned phone calls from News 8. Chris Hansen told an audience that some of the Murphy cases may be taken up by another prosecutor.

News 8 has learned that the Dallas County District Attorney has been given some of the cases, but hasn't decided yet whether to accept them.

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com