Chris Butler (private investigator)

Last updated

Chris Butler
Born
Christopher Butler
Occupation(s)Private investigator
Former police officer
Known forNumerous convictions

Christopher Butler was a private investigator, and former Antioch, California police officer, who founded a firm named Private Investigations, Inc., based in Concord, California.

Contents

P.I. Moms

Butler used the name P.I. Moms to identify and promote his use of women investigators to land a reality show based on his business. [1]

Arrest

Butler was arrested on February 16, 2011 along with Central Contra Costa County California Narcotic Enforcement Team Commander Norman Wielsch. The two men were accused of selling police-confiscated crystal methamphetamine, anabolic steroids, and marijuana. These items had been seized as evidence in unrelated investigations and arrests. The materials had been stolen from police evidence lockers. Both men were indicted on 28 felony counts. [1]

The counts include embezzlement, second-degree burglary and conspiracy, as well as the drug-related charges. [2] Butler's bail was set at $840,000, and Wielsch's was set at $660,000. Upon arrest, both were held in the Contra Costa county jail, located in Martinez, California. [2] On February 8, 2012, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office dropped all state charges against Butler [3] while a case against him continued at the federal level. In May 2012, Butler pleaded guilty to robbery, extortion, and conspiracy, and in September 2012 he was sentenced to eight years in prison. [4]

Dirty DUIs

As recorded in published transcripts of his interviews with police detectives on March 17, 2011, Butler admitted that he hired female decoys to assist in determining if a "target" male, usually the husband of his female client, would drink alcohol in a quantity sufficient to exceed the legal limit to drive an automobile. Once the "target" male had been observed to consume this amount of alcohol likely to exceed the legal limit to drive, the hired female decoys would leave the establishment and ask the target to follow them home. [5]

An associate coined the phrase "dirty DUI scheme" to describe the practice. A number of the arrests and convictions resulting from the practice have been expunged and overturned, along with apologies from the senior deputy district attorney of Contra Costa County, Hal Jewett, whose office prosecuted the original cases. Jewett was quoted in his cover letter to one man arrested in a Butler "sting" operation as saying the drunken driving arrest was "one of the most deplorable legal practices I have ever heard of." [5]

Media coverage

Butler's organization was featured in the media. Using these media appearances as marketing and with the help of a Beverly Hills public relations company, Butler signed a contract to be part of a reality television show on Lifetime Television. [6] Prior to the filming of the reality show, Butler was contacted by the local pop culture periodical Diablo Magazine in an effort to appeal to the demographic that the magazine served. [7] As admitted by several participants in the actions, Butler re-enacted a case to satisfy the "ride along" demand of the magazine's reporter, Peter Crooks. The re-enactment was executed on September 11, 2010, including a convoluted journey into the Napa Valley wine country tailing a suspected cheating fiancé and his mistress. The "PIs" involved were also all in on the ruse. Crooks was easily fooled; he was convinced that his experience was real and went on to write the story. Calling himself "Ronald Rutherford", Carl Marino told Crooks that the entire case had been a re-enactment. In several subsequent emails from "Rutherford", Carl Marino laid out carefully crafted evidence for the reporter to show that he was trustworthy and that the information was valid. Carl Marino told Crooks that he was informing him as a favor so that the magazine could avoid embarrassment. [7] After Crooks received the e-mail from Marino, he immediately contacted Butler and the "PI Moms" who had been on the ride along to question them about it. [1] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contra Costa County, California</span> County in California, United States

Contra Costa County is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 1,165,927. The county seat is Martinez. It occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area and is primarily suburban. The county's name refers to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danville, California</span> City in California, United States

The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in their names instead of "city". The population was 43,582 at the 2020 census. Since 2018, for five consecutive years, Danville was named "the safest town in California".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walnut Creek, California</span> City in California, United States

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles east of the city of Oakland. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, is located at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24), and is accessible by BART. The city shares its borders with Clayton, Lafayette, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, and Concord.

Drunk driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle with the operator's ability to do so impaired as a result of alcohol consumption, or with a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit. For drivers 21 years or older, driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher is illegal. For drivers under 21 years old, the legal limit is lower, with state limits ranging from 0.00 to 0.02. Lower BAC limits apply when operating boats, airplanes, or commercial vehicles. Among other names, the criminal offense of drunk driving may be called driving under the influence (DUI), driving while intoxicated or impaired (DWI), operating [a] vehicle under the influence of alcohol (OVI), or operating while impaired (OWI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Locklear</span> American actress (born 1961)

Heather Deen Locklear is an American actress famous for her role as Amanda Woodward on Melrose Place (1993–1999), for which she received four consecutive Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. She is also known for her role as Sammy Jo Carrington on Dynasty from 1981 to 1989, her first major television role, which began a longtime collaboration with producer Aaron Spelling.

Diablo Valley College (DVC) is a public community college with campuses in Pleasant Hill and San Ramon in Contra Costa County, California. DVC is one of three public community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District. It opened in 1949. DVC has more than 22,000 students and 300 full-time and 370 part-time instructors.

Zachery Tyler Bryan is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his role as Brad Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. He also appeared in the films First Kid and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Clayton Valley Charter High School (CVCHS) is a comprehensive charter high school located in Concord, California, United States, just under two miles from Clayton. Most of the school's students live in Clayton and the nearby Concord neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Collins (actor)</span> American actor and TV host (1938–2012)

Gary Ennis Collins was an American actor and television host. Throughout his career, he won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985.

John Muir Health is a hospital network headquartered in Walnut Creek, California and serving Contra Costa County, California and surrounding communities. It was formed in 1997 from the merger of John Muir Medical Center and Mount Diablo Medical Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Diego Police Department</span> Law enforcement agency serving San Diego, California

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of San Diego, California. It was established on May 16, 1889. The department employs 1,731 officers and 601 civilian staff. It covers 343 square miles of service area with a population of over 1.4 million people. It is the second-largest municipal police department in California, after the Los Angeles Police Department.

<i>To Catch a Predator</i> American reality television series

To Catch a Predator is an American reality television series in the television news magazine program Dateline NBC featuring confrontations of host Chris Hansen, partly filmed with a hidden camera, with adult men arriving at a sting house to have sex with a minor and typically being arrested as a result. The minors are adults impersonating underage persons in online chats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John James Nazarian</span>

John James Nazarian, is an American private investigator and security expert with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Florida. Nazarian is best known as a celebrity guest commentator on crime- and divorce-related television programming, as well as making appearances in documentaries or docudramas in a reality or fictional setting.

The Antioch Police Department is a police department serving the East Bay city of Antioch, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regina Louise</span> American author, child advocate, and motivational speaker

Regina Louise Kerr-Taylor is an American author, child advocate, and motivational speaker, who is best known for successfully navigating through more than thirty foster home placements as a ward of the California Juvenile Court system. Louise is the second child of the late singer/songwriter Tom Brock. Brock abandoned his daughter into the foster care system during the late-1970s to pursue musical interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIT Crime Club</span> Massachusetts Institute of Technology student organization

The MIT Crime Club was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student group known for its attempts to develop technological solutions to crime problems and for its unauthorized investigation of a murder in a Harvard dorm. It was established in 2005 to undertake campus-safety projects and raise awareness of campus and neighborhood crime. The group rebroadcast police radio transmissions online, assembled police-log compilations, and constructed crime maps.

"El Diablo" is the third episode of the American television drama series The Killing, which aired on April 10, 2011 on AMC in the United States. The episode was co-written by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin and was directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. In the episode, councilman Richmond suspects a leak within his team. Sarah tracks down a witness, which leads to a suspect, while trying to work with her new awkward partner Holder.

This list contains incidents of misconduct that have resulted in a conviction, confession, plea bargain or some sort of administrative disciplinary action taken against a member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Excluded are allegations and lawsuits that have not been adjudicated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lance</span> American journalist and author (born 1948)

Peter Lance is an American journalist and author. He is a five-time winner of the News & Documentary Emmy Award, the recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and other accolades detailed below. In April 2010, Lance was appointed as a one-year visiting scholar at the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Becton</span> Contra Costa County District Attorney (born 1951)

Diana Becton, also known as Diana Becton Smith, is a former trial judge and is currently both the first woman and first African American to be elected district attorney in the history of Contra Costa County in California.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "447: The Incredible Case of the P.I. Moms". This American Life. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011. Transcript
  2. 1 2 Richards, Kathleen (2011-02-17). "'Honeytrapper' Arrested on Drug Charges". Eastbayexpress.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  3. ↑ ""Contra Costa judge dismisses state charges against officers in CNET scandal to preserve federal case"". Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
  4. ↑ Associated Press. "'Dirty DUIs' Private Investigator Gets 8 Years". ABC News. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  5. 1 2 Justin Berton (May 3, 2011). "Concord private eye detailed 'dirty DUI' stings". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ "For ‘Mommy P.I.’ sleuth, an abrupt script change"
  7. 1 2 3 Crooks, Peter (April 2011). "The Setup". Diablo Magazine. Archived from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2011.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.