Trainwreck: P.I. Moms: Inside the True Story Involving a Fake Lifetime Reality Show By Lynsey Eidell

In 2010, a reality television series following a private investigation firm staffed by soccer moms was in the works — but one local journalist would uncover that there was nothing “real” about it.

The series, called P.I. Moms, was set to debut in early 2011 on Lifetime Networks. The premise was reminiscent of the popular film Charlie’s Angels: Former cop Chris Butler ran the San Francisco-based firm and managed a team of moms moonlighting as investigators. Butler and his so-called “P.I. moms” tackled everything from insurance scams to cheating husbands, and gained media attention in the process.

But as one local journalist, Peter Crooks, would learn, Butler’s enterprise was all a facade. An anonymous source tipped off Crooks that Butler wasn’t just faking stings and investigations — he was also involved in criminal activity that included dirty cops, drug deals, prostitution rings and more.

The downfall of Butler and his reality television dreams is the subject of Netflix’s Trainwreck: P.I. Moms, which begins streaming on July 22. The latest installment of the documentary series — which has also told the stories of the Astroworld tragedy, the real-life Project X and the infamous Carnival Triumph disaster, among others — features first-hand accounts from the television producers, journalists and former P.I. moms who were duped by Butler.

In a bizarre story that seems stranger-than-fiction, here’s everything to know about Chris Butler, the P.I. moms and the journalist-informant duo who helped take down a major crime ring.

Who is Chris Butler?

Butler was born in upstate New York and moved to California with his family in 1973, Diablo magazine reported.  He worked as a police officer in the city of Antioch for 11 years before acquiring his own private investigation firm, which he named Butler and Associates Private Investigations, Inc., in 2000, CBS News stated.

Butler left the police force because  “law enforcement administration often had trouble understanding [Butler’s] tactics and drive, as they were well above the standards of routine performance,” according to his now-defunct website, per Diablo. “Christopher brings the same tactics, drive, and creativity into the private sector,” it read.

Butler first staffed his private investigation firm with off-duty cops and former law enforcement officers, who were all men — but he found them “competitive, impatient and difficult to deal with,” he told Diablo. So, instead, he tapped into a different demographic: Moms.

“I hired a mom, and she was the best investigator I had worked with,” Butler told the magazine. “She was patient and a good team player, and she could multitask.”

Who is Carl Marino?

Carl Marino first met Butler around 2008, when he answered a Craigslist ad looking for someone with both law enforcement and acting experience, according to This American Life.

Marino had spent 17 years as a sheriff’s deputy in upstate New York, CBS News reported, before relocating to San Francisco to pursue modeling and acting, per Diablo. The Butler and Associates role appeared to combine the two.

Butler hired Marino and made him the director of operations at Butler and Associates. Marino described their work at the PI firm as “always on the fringe” to CBS News.

Who were the P.I. moms?

After Butler hired a team of moms as private investigators, the firm began to attract nationwide media attention.

In 2010, Butler and the P.I. moms appeared on The Dr. Phil Show and the Today show and were also featured in magazines. During these segments, he shed more light on why he believed moms made superior investigators.

“They come into this field prepped for the type of work that they’re gonna be encountering. … They’re very good listeners,” Butler said on The Dr. Phil Show (via CBS News). “They’re probably more sensitive to people lying to them.”

But it wasn’t just their keen listening skills and sensitivity that made these moms useful to Butler’s operation: He also deployed the moms as “decoys” in operations, he explained on Dr. Phil. In one such sting, he used one of his P.I. moms to tempt and seduce a husband suspected of cheating at a hotel bar — a tactic even Dr. Phil questioned.

Despite Butler’s unconventional methods, his team’s media coverage caught the attention of reality television producers. Butler opted to work with Ben Silverman, the producer behind the U.S. versions of The Biggest Loser and The Office and their concept, P.I. Moms, was pitched to multiple networks. Butler told Diablo magazine that Lifetime Television “bought it on the spot.”

The show, which focused on Butler and five female team members, began production and filming in late 2010. It was slated for a March 2011 debut on Lifetime.

Who is Peter Crooks?

Peter Crooks is a journalist who, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was a writer and senior editor at Diablo magazine, a Bay Area lifestyle magazine.

In August 2010, Crooks received a pitch from a Los Angeles-based publicist to write a story on Butler and his P.I. moms, in light of their recent publicity and upcoming reality show.

“It seemed like a no-brainer that we would, that we would cover that story,” Crooks told CBS News.

As part of Crooks’ research for the article, he rode along with Butler and the P.I. moms to witness a potential sting in action. Butler informed Crooks that his firm had been hired by a wealthy woman who suspected her younger fiancé of cheating, and they were headed out to potentially catch him in the act.

Crooks tagged along in the back of a minivan with two P.I. moms as they tailed the subject one day in September 2010. During their 10 hours of surveillance, the trio witnessed the man pick up a female date, take her shopping and out to lunch in Napa Valley, and check into a local hotel.

Throughout their day-long tryst, the couple also frequently kissed in public. The P.I. moms captured the indiscretions on video camera and informed the client that her suspicions were confirmed.

What happened with Peter Crooks’ article about the P.I. moms?

Crooks’ article about Butler and the P.I. Moms was slated to run in March 2011, timed in conjunction with the release of the Lifetime reality show. But in January, Crooks received a troubling email from an individual named “R. Rutherford” who alleged that the entire ride-along Crooks had taken part in was staged.

“Chris totally played you,” the email read, according to Diablo magazine. “The case that you sat in on was totally scripted. All of the participants were employees or paid actors.”

Crooks contacted Butler and revealed the accusations, which the private investigator vehemently denied. However, when asked for proof of the case’s legitimacy, Butler became evasive — dodging Crooks’ repeated requests to speak with the client and see photo evidence of her relationship with the subject.

Butler eventually claimed that the email had originated from a disgruntled former intern who had had an affair with one of the P.I. moms that ended badly. However, when Crooks attempted to arrange an in-person meeting with a fact-checker to discuss the details of the article, Butler claimed he was too busy with his cases and filming to meet.

What else was Chris Butler accused of?

R. Rutherford’s accusations didn’t stop with the supposedly faked ride-along: 10 days after the initial email, Crooks received a second message from Rutherford alleging that Butler was involved in “some serious criminal activity” that included police corruption and drug dealing.

Rutherford went on to accuse the commander of the Contra Costa County Narcotics Task Force, Norm Wielsch, of taking drugs and explosives seized from raids and giving them to Butler to sell. Rutherford alleged that Butler was selling large amounts of marijuana, prescription painkillers and steroids, as well as C-4 plastic explosive.

The source also appealed to Crooks for help, asking for a trusted person in law enforcement to inform them of this alleged operation.

What happened to Chris Butler?

Thanks to the information Rutherford passed along to Crooks, in February 2011, undercover officers captured Wielsch stealing three pounds of crystal methamphetamine out of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s drug locker and then meeting up with Butler to sell one pound of it to a confidential informant. The transaction was captured on video, and the pair were arrested and hit with 28 felony drug and weapons charges each, Diablo reported.

The investigation into Butler and Wielsch revealed that their crimes extended beyond the drug operation: The two also allegedly ran a brothel posing as a massage parlor and set up stings to steal money from competing prostitutes, according to SFGate.

Butler was separately accused of being paid by attorneys to place illegal eavesdropping devices in people’s cars, as well as supposedly setting up “dirty DUIs,” where women would hire Butler to have their estranged partners arrested for drunk driving. The scam involved attractive women, employed by Butler, plying the targets with alcohol before they got behind the wheel. Butler would then tip off the police to a suspected drunk driver, leading to an arrest, the East Bay Times reported.

Butler ultimately took a plea deal, pleading guilty in May 2012 to seven felony counts, including methamphetamine and marijuana distribution, theft, conspiracy, extortion, robbery and illegal wiretapping.

In his confession to authorities, he admitted to his involvement in the array of crimes and ended up testifying against his partner, Wielsch. (The narcotics officer was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in 2013.)  In September 2012, Butler was sentenced to eight years in federal prison and fined $20,000.

“I want to apologize to the law enforcement community for the betrayal and embarrassment I inflicted upon it,” Butler said at his sentencing. “I want to apologize to my family and friends who supported me through all of this.”

Who was the whistleblower “R. Rutherford”?

In another shocking twist to the Butler case, Marino, Butler’s director of operations at his firm, was responsible for exposing the private investigator’s crimes.

Marino revealed to This American Life that during the early days of filming the reality show, Butler approached him about selling large amounts of marijuana that had been seized in drug raids by Wielsch.

Marino ended up paying for the drugs himself to satisfy his boss, but then Butler asked him to move more contraband, leaving Marino in a precarious situation. He was afraid to contact the authorities, unsure of which cops he could trust, and didn’t want to go to the local news media, fearing to tip off Butler and Wielsch.

“Literally it was that day when I first saw those drugs that I knew I was gonna do something about it,” Marino told CBS News. “I had no idea what it was, how I was gonna do it, when I was gonna do it. But knowing where those drugs came from, I knew something had to be done.”

Marino ultimately decided to tip off Crooks, first with the information about the staged ride-along to see if the journalist would bite. When Crooks began looking into that, Marino knew he could trust him with more and sent the information about the illicit drug operation.

Crooks connected the source he only knew as Rutherford with a trusted police contact, which led to the large-scale investigation into Butler and Wielsch. Marino ended up serving as a confidential informant, wearing multiple wires that captured sound and video.

Marino went on to portray Joe Kenda in Investigation Discovery’s docuseries Homicide Hunter for nine seasons from 2011 to 2020.

What happened to the reality show P.I. Moms?

As Butler’s criminal enterprise crumbled behind the scenes, so did his hopes of becoming a reality television star.

In January 2011, with questions about the legitimacy of his investigations looming, several of the P.I. moms handed in their resignations, Diablo reported. By early February, Lifetime had pulled the plug on the reality show.

“We eventually stopped filming because Chris Butler told us there would be plenty of cases to film, and that simply wasn’t true,” Lucas Platt, the reality show’s executive producer, told Diablo. “The network was willing to invest millions of dollars in a show, and he was not able to come through.”

Platt added that he also had his doubts about Butler. “The whole time I worked on the show, Butler never once looked me in the eye,” the showrunner said. “I definitely felt that he was less than honest.”

The moms employed by Butler, however, denied having any knowledge of the faked stings and investigations, according to a follow-up episode of Dr. Phil.