Who is Chris Butler and where is the cop turned private investigator, drug dealer and brothel manager now?
DIRTY COP Who is Chris Butler and where is the cop turned private investigator, drug dealer and brothel manager now?
DISGRACED former cop Chris Butler promoted the 2010 reality TV concept P.I. Moms before his spectacular fall from grace.
He was later convicted of drug dealing and running a brothel, as well as an array of other crimes — here's everything we know about him.
Advertisement
3
Chris Butler surrounded by his P.I. Moms investigators — (from left to right) Michelle Allen, Denise Antoon, Julia Brazina and Charmagne Peters
Credit: Getty
3
Promo pic from reality shoe P.I. Moms (2010), which came to an end following Butler's arrest
Credit: Paramount
Who is Chris Butler?
Christopher Butler is a former police officer, who worked in Antioch, California.
He became a private investigator and gained notoriety for his involvement in a series of high-profile crimes.
These include drug dealing, operating a brothel and orchestrating fraudulent DUI arrests.
In the mid-2000s, Butler founded a private investigations firm — Butler & Associates Private Investigations — in Concord, California.
Advertisement
He was also known for promoting the 2010 Lifetime show P.I. Moms of San Francisco, featuring female investigators catching cheating husbands red-handed while filming them.
Butler's criminal activities came to light in 2011 when he and Norman Wielsch — then-commander of the Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET) — were arrested and indicted on multiple felony charges.
The charges included selling confiscated drugs — with Butler's assistance, Wielsch stole methamphetamine, marijuana and steroids from police evidence lockers and sold them on the street.
Butler also rented office space in Pleasant Hill, California, where he managed a brothel disguised as a massage parlor.
Advertisement
The parlor's sex workers were required to make weekly payments, which Butler shared with Wielsch, in exchange for Wielsch's agreement to provide protection from law enforcement.
Butler and Wielsch staged fake police raids, seizing money and possessions under the guise of law enforcement.
In addition, Butler orchestrated stings to frame men for drunk driving at the request of ex-wives.
He used his female investigators to lure targets into drinking with them before notifying police.
Advertisement
Where is he now?
In May 2012, Butler pleaded guilty to seven federal felony charges, including drug offenses, conspiracy, extortion and illegal wiretapping.
His cooperation with federal investigators led to a plea deal, but the severity of his crimes resulted in an eight-year federal prison sentence.
3
Butler was sentenced to eight years behind bars after a plea deal
Credit: Paramount
Prosecutors noted that Butler's actions, motivated by a desire for fame and money, caused significant harm to individuals and undermined public trust in law enforcement.
Advertisement
While he was eligible for release by around 2020, there is no recent public information indicating that Butler has returned to public life or resumed any professional activities, as of July 1, 2025.
Netflix's Trainwreck: P.I. Moms
A new true crime documentary revisits the reality show and the scandal that followed.
The original P.I. Moms show aired in 2010 and was marketed as an inside look at women balancing motherhood and undercover detective work.
The Netflix doc explores how the show unraveled when journalists and producers began to suspect that not everything was as it seemed.
Advertisement
Allegations surfaced that the agency was being used as a front for drug dealing and that a local police officer was involved, leading to a full-blown scandal.
The documentary promises to detail the true story behind the show's collapse and criminal allegations, as well as the broader impact of the case on reality television and law enforcement
Trainwreck: P.I. Moms drops on Netflix on July 22, 2025.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
33 minutes ago
- The Sun
Netflix's Amy Bradley doc has ‘pinned it on wrong man' – ‘truth behind her disappearance from cruise ship' 27 years ago
A NEW Netflix documentary about a woman who mysteriously vanished from a cruise ship 27 years ago points the finger at the wrong man, an expert has claimed. Amy Lynn Bradley, then 23, vanished in March 1998 after boarding the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas with her family. 5 5 5 On March 23, just three days into the trip, she went missing. She was last seen on the balcony of the cabin she shared with her parents, Ron and Iva, and her younger brother Brad, after partying at the ship's nightclub. But there was no evidence that she jumped or fell from the high railing, and her family fears she could have left the room and been kidnapped. Amy was captured on security footage dancing with a bass player who played at the club, Alistair "Yellow" Douglas, who has always denied knowing what happened to her. The Netflix documentary, Amy Bradley is Missing, featured alleged witnesses who claimed to have seen the recent college graduate with Douglas after the club closed, and on a beach after she was reported missing. The sightings have never been confirmed, and although a lie detector test came back inconclusive, the FBI ruled Douglas out. Many social media users claimed they were "sure" he played a part in Amy's disappearance after seeing the three-part series. Douglas's daughter, Amica, also told filmmakers she is suspicious of her father's story and called him to comment on the case while being interviewed on camera. He was unaware the phone call was being filmed and is not thought to have been approached for further comment. YouTuber, journalist, and author James Renner recently took the same trip as Bradley and went to meet Douglas, who is now an exorcist and pastor at a small church in Granada. Douglas granted Renner a rare interview after years of trying to stay out of the spotlight. In the filmed interview, Douglas claimed he never saw Amy after they danced together at the ship's nightclub before she retired to her cabin. Renner is set to release a book, A Cruise to Nowhere, out next summer about Amy's case, having previously met with her family and investigators who spent years tirelessly trying to find her. In an exclusive chat with The U.S. Sun, Renner said he feels desperately sorry for Douglas, whose life was turned upside down by the case, and believes he is innocent. He feels the pastor may sue after the Netflix series heavily focused on him as a suspect who could have sex-trafficked Amy, andafter the show set up the phone call with his daughter. Renner told The U.S. Sun, "I think it was just like a week or two after that happened that I talked to him. "When I talked to him, he said he was ready to take [legal] action if they made him look [bad]. "I certainly think he has a case. I would do it if I were him." Renner said he had not spoken with him since the release of the documentary, and The U.S. Sun has made several attempts to reach him for comment. "I would imagine by now he has [watched it] or has somebody that's told him what's in it," Renner continued. "He keeps up, he knows what's going on. 'SINCERE & CANDID' "I think the documentary certainly did a disservice to the investigation and to what happened to Amy. Because you go online now, and people just assume that he's guilty." The U.S. Sun spoke to filmmaker Ari Mark about Douglas being a suspect, to which he replied, "I feel awful for the Douglas family and what they've had to endure all these years." Discussing his meet-up with Douglas, Renner said he has remarried and tried to make peace with the fact that his name is still linked to the case. But he still gets upset when trolls attack him and his family online, and he has received death threats over the years, despite using another name on Facebook. "I found him to be very sincere and candid," Renner said. "If he was involved, there was really no reason for him to grant me an interview. He had nothing to gain from it. "But this is an event that he's had to think about a lot. I think he was looking for an opportunity to tell his side of the story. "He admits that, as an officer on the cruise ship, he definitely crossed the line with dancing close with Amy. But he says he didn't have anything to do with what ultimately happened to her. And I believe him. "He's an active member in his community there. He doesn't have any other history of violence. "He has a beautiful wife and kid on the island, and they were at church with him and were involved there and seemed well-adjusted." Asked if the Bradleys had ever met with Douglas to hear his side of the story, Renner said, 'I don't believe he ever met with the family. I think, from what I understand, the last time they saw him was when he was coming out the first time he was questioned by the FBI on the cruise ship." Timeline of Amy Lynn Bradley's last hours before her disappearance March 23, 1998, evening Amy Lynn Bradley and her brother, Brad, attended a dance party at the ship's disco, where they were seen with members of the ship's band. The ship was sailing from Aruba to Curaçao. March 24, 1998, 3:35 a.m. Brad Bradley returned to the family cabin, followed five minutes later by Amy, after a night of dancing and drinking. They sat on the balcony and talked before Brad went to sleep. March 24, 1998, 5:15 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Amy's father, Ron Bradley, woke up briefly and saw Amy asleep on a lounge chair on their cabin's balcony. This is the last confirmed sighting of her by her family. March 24, 1998, 5:30 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. Three witnesses later claimed to have seen Amy on an upper deck of the ship with Alister "Yellow" Douglas, a member of the ship's band, and said he was seen leaving alone shortly after 6 a.m. March 24, 1998, 6:00 a.m. When Ron Bradley woke up again, Amy was no longer on the balcony, but her shoes were still in the cabin, and her cigarettes and lighter were missing. He began to search the ship for her. March 24, 1998, 6:30 a.m. The family reported Amy missing to the ship's crew and asked that passengers be prevented from disembarking, but their request was denied. The ship had already docked in Curaçao. March 24, 1998, 7:50 a.m. The ship made a public announcement for Amy to come to the purser's desk, but by this time, many of the passengers had already disembarked. A full ship search was conducted later in the day, but no sign of Amy was found. March 24-27, 1998 The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard conducted a four-day air and sea search for Amy around Curaçao and Aruba, but no trace of her was ever found. Authorities initially considered the possibility that she fell overboard, but this theory was later dismissed. Renner said Douglas met again with the FBI just a few years ago, and they believed he had nothing to do with her disappearance. An alleged witness featured in the Netflix show claimed to have seen Douglas going up to the club in an elevator with Amy before returning alone after the last time she was seen in her cabin. Another claimed to have seen him walking along a beach with a woman matching her description and acting suspiciously, but neither has been backed up with real evidence Renner said, "You just look at the statistics on people who have been wrongfully convicted, and the majority of them were convicted based on witness testimony that was false." Douglas' work as an exorcist in Granada has also raised eyebrows, with some critics claiming he's doing "satanic rituals." Renner insists his work is a fairly normal practice on the island. He explained, "It has a long history of what's called Obeah, which is what we might think of as akin to voodoo or witchcraft. "Obeah is technically outlawed on Grenada, but people still practice it all the time. And it's such a tradition that people those beliefs. "So, he's essentially, through this church, working as an exorcist in the tradition of Obeah. It's not that out of the ordinary for Grenada. "It would be a little weird, you know, if he was doing that in like Ohio." LAST MEETING In his interview with Renner for the YouTube channel, True Crime This Week, Douglas recalled playing until midnight with the band, after which he began talking to Amy, the night before she vanished. He claims the pair talked about music, and she later met him at the lounge at the top of the ship, and he was uncomfortable with her chain-smoking. She allegedly told him it was because her father found out she was gay, a claim backed up in the documentary, which also featured interviews with past girlfriends. Douglas admitted he didn't know how to respond, but suggested they dance to a few songs before he had to leave at 12.55 am. "I said, 'Look, I have to go, I have to be out of [the] passenger area', and I left," he claimed. "That was my last conversation [with her], last time I saw her." "The person I am, I like to console people, I like to talk with people. There was not enough time, maybe the following day if I had seen her I would have." He further claimed he had a key card for his cabin that read what time he arrived back at his room. The hotel called him the following morning and quizzed him on whether he had a woman in his room, explaining Amy was missing, and he was told not to leave his cabin, where other musicians were also sleeping. He insisted he hadn't seen her since their chat, and it was forbidden to have passengers in his room or to be outside past 1 am. Douglas said he was questioned for hours by authorities, but later cleared, insisting he wasn't worried but was nervous to have his name "mixed up" in something he didn't know about. Tearing up, he admitted, "I've lost so many opportunities because of this," explaining that people Google his name and believe he had something to do with Amy going missing. "My inbox, my Facebook, people have been writing me horrible stuff for years." Speaking about the phone call with his daughter, he said, "I said, 'Amica, listen, if you want you can let people know that I'm not your father because I can't explain this.' "I said, 'The truth will come out, and when the truth come out I will sue the people who have been making documentaries about me'. "For now, it's just in the hands of those investigating. Somebody knows something, and somebody will speak at some point." 5
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Amy Bradley's cryptic letter to girlfriend 'predicting disappearance' before she vanished
A month before she disappeared from a Caribbean cruise ship, Amy Bradley penned a heartfelt letter to her girlfriend, asking her to "save" her, as seen in the Netflix documentary Before her vanishing on a family holiday, Amy Lynn Bradley made a tearful confession to her girlfriend: she had kissed another woman. The news devastated her lover Mollie McClure, prompting her to cut off communication to process the betrayal. Desperate to reconnect, Amy, from Virginia, penned a heartfelt letter and sent it to Mollie in a "message in a bottle." The handwritten note, now shared in episode three of Netflix 's Amy Bradley Is Missing, would gain haunting significance just weeks later when the 23-year-old vanished without a trace during a Caribbean cruise with her family. It comes after a dad died in scalding hot bath as family slam hotel management for 'ignoring warnings'. "Mollie, I hurt you deeper than you can ever forget," Amy wrote. "I'm not asking you to forget… I just wanted to ask you if you could find it in your heart to forgive me. "I feel like there is an ocean between us, like I'm on a desert island waiting for you to rescue me… Save me, please. Stranded, Amy." Exactly one month after writing those words, on March 24, 1998, Amy disappeared from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship while docked in Curaçao. She was last seen by her father, asleep on the cabin balcony between 5:15 and 5:30am. By 6am, she was gone, leaving behind everything but her lighter and cigarettes. Since then, theories have ranged from accidental drowning or suicide to kidnapping and human trafficking. While some point to the letter as a possible clue to suicide, McClure disagrees. "It could suggest suicide," Mollie says in the series. "But I don't connect with it in that way." 'It is a love letter. The metaphor — 'stranded,' 'ocean between us' — is convenient to misread, but I don't interpret it that way.' Amy's disappearance has sparked a decades-long investigation and her family has occasionally received tips that have seemed promising. In August 1998, Canadian tourist David Carmichael claimed he saw Amy on a Curaçao beach flanked by two individuals. He said the woman pointed to her tattoos, which matched Amy's. Authorities searched the area, but found nothing. Then in January 1999, a U.S. Navy petty officer reported that a woman at a brothel in Curaçao told him, 'My name is Amy Bradley,' and begged for help. She reportedly panicked when he mentioned a nearby naval ship, responding, 'No, you don't understand.' The officer didn't take action, her father, Ron Bradley, told NBC News — in in part because the officer wasn't allowed to be in the brothel and because he didn't know anyone by that name was missing until he saw a magazine cover with Amy's face and name on it. In 2005, the Bradley family received anonymous online photos of a woman named "Jas," who closely resembled Amy. A forensic analysis reportedly suggested a match, but investigators were unable to trace the source of the images, and the FBI found no actionable evidence. Despite public interest and numerous leads, Amy remains missing. The FBI has classified her case as a suspected abduction, but no suspects have been charged, and her fate remains unknown. Now, thanks to the latest Netflix documentary her story is drawing fresh interest, and with it, renewed hope that the mystery might one day be solved.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Secret Service ex-director who quit after Trump assassination attempt faces fresh humiliation
Kimberly Cheatle, the former Secret Service director who resigned in disgrace following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, has suffered a new professional blow after receiving news her security clearance will not be renewed. The decision by the Secret Service, first reported by RealClearPolitics came after a wave of fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who led a sweeping investigation into the agency's catastrophic failures at Trump's July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 'Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,' Johnson said. 'I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated.' Cheatle, handpicked by then–First Lady Jill Biden in 2022, had previously led the agency through what congressional investigators later described as one of the most glaring security breakdowns in presidential protection in modern history. Trump narrowly survived the July 13, 2024, shooting after a bullet grazed his ear, while a local firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were wounded in the chaos. Cheatle stepped down just 10 days later following intense pressure from lawmakers who demanded accountability over a security detail that failed to station an officer on the rooftop where the gunman had positioned himself, among other lapses. The revocation of her clearance is not only a personal humiliation for Cheatle, but also a stark departure from past practice. For decades, the Secret Service has routinely renewed security clearances for its former directors, maintaining open channels for consultations on national security issues. But under new Director Sean Curran, a Trump loyalist and the former head of the president's protective detail, that tradition has now ended. 'Director Curran has been modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency,' a Secret Service spokesperson said. 'During that process, he has determined that not all former directors will have their clearances renewed.' The process to renew Cheatle's clearance was already underway until RealClearPolitics inquired about Johnson's objections. Soon after, the agency seemed to reverse course. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), a Judiciary Committee member who jointly investigated the Butler debacle, offered no sympathy. 'Kim Cheatle disgraced the Secret Service by failing to prevent a horrifying attempt on President Trump's life,' Blackburn said in a statement. 'Not only did she oversee one of the greatest security failures in our nation's history, but she also stonewalled congressional oversight and ran away from my colleagues and me when we confronted her. 'Under no circumstances should she be allowed to regain her security clearance, and it is shameful she would even try.' On the one-year anniversary of the Butler rally, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), now chair of the Homeland Security Committee, issued a scathing report accusing Cheatle of lying to Congress when she claimed under oath she had not denied requests for increased security for Trump. Cheatle, speaking through her attorney, denied the accusation in a rare public statement. 'Any assertion or implication that I provided misleading testimony is patently false and does a disservice to those men and women on the front lines who have been unfairly disciplined for a team, rather than individual, failure.' And it appears this may not be the last of it. House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer has said a criminal referral is still on the table. 'If stark evidence of an intentional effort to deceive arises... this Committee will respond,' an Oversight aide said. 'Whether or not Ms. Cheatle's testimony meets the legal definition of misleading Congress, it's clear she failed in her mission leading the agency and appropriately resigned.' According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in July, the Secret Service received classified warnings about a possible Iranian threat to Trump 10 days before the Butler rally but that intelligence that was never passed to agents securing the site. The report, commissioned by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), reinforced suspicions that Cheatle's office had treated Trump more like a former president than a current presidential candidate, despite clear evidence that he was a high-value target. Multiple Secret Service insiders said Cheatle's team had repeatedly denied Curran's requests for additional counter-sniper support and other heightened security assets during the 2024 campaign. Cheatle's fall is just one part of a much larger shake-up in the US intelligence world under Trump's second term. Within 24 hours of retaking office, the president signed an executive order revoking the clearances of dozens of former intelligence officials including the now-infamous '51 spies who lied' who had signed a 2020 letter dismissing the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story as 'Russian disinformation.' Among those stripped of access: John Brennan, James Clapper, Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, and John Bolton. In March, Trump went further, ordering the suspension of clearances for the Democratic-aligned law firm Perkins Coie, which was central to commissioning the now-discredited Steele dossier during the 2016 election. A federal judge has since blocked that order, but DOJ lawyers are appealing. National security attorney Sean Bigley said the revocations reflect a reform that is long-overdue. 'You have all of these former government bureaucrats, who are continuing to have access to the highest level of classified information... and then they can go and take that continued insider access and make themselves a hot commodity in the private sector or on the cable news circuit,' Bigley told RCP. 'That's not what security clearances are supposed to be used for – it's a fringe benefit that should be pulled.' Despite Cheatle's ousting, Trump has publicly taken a more tempered tone toward the Secret Service rank-and-file. 'They should have had communications with the local police... So there were mistakes made,' Trump said in an interview last month with Fox News. 'But I was satisfied in terms of the bigger plot... And I have great confidence in these people... They had a bad day. And I think they'll admit that.' Last month, the agency suffered another embarrassing episode when a Secret Service agent tried to sneak his wife onto an Air Force One flight during Trump's overseas trip to Scotland.
