Butler Chris - The setup : a true story of dirty cops, soccer moms, and reality TV

PRAISE FOR

The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV

Journalist Pete Crooks has very carefully reported a tale of people who believed that reality television was the fastest pathway to the fame they so desperately wanted. In many ways, this book is a cautionary tale to all those who believe fame is so important to obtain... You will be given a unique insight into a house of cards constructed to lead to media fameand to discover more sinister behavior that was occurring just behind the curtain, when the cameras werent shooting.

JOE KENDA, retired police detective, subject of Discovery Televisions Homicide Hunter: Lieutenant Joe Kenda

I am an incurable reader of thrillersand The Setup is most certainly a riveting real-life thriller. But the book is also much more than that: Its an inside-out look at the manipulative allure of reality television and a telling tale about what people will do for fifteen minutes of fame. This deeply layered crime and corruption story is the ultimate truth is stranger than fiction scenario for a celebrity-obsessed culture. Once I started reading, I could not put The Setup down.

LOUISE FLETCHER, Academy Awardwinning actress, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

I ate this book up. A true crime story about a delusional suburban detective trying to sell a reality show about soccer moms? Yes, you are going to laugh a lot, but because Crooks treats his subjects respectfully and like the fallible humans we all are, the absurdity isnt mean spirited. Only a true noir fan could have done such a bang-up job.

BETH LISICK, New York Times bestselling author, Everybody into the Pool

The Setup takes you on a rambunctious ride-along through some ugly terrain. Not the faux paradise of the Bay Areas affluent suburbs, but the delusional, desperate, duplicitous, and thoroughly despicable lives of miscreants who will do anything for a shot at fameas long as its televised. Pete Crooks wild tale is a valuable cultural expos, detailing how Americas cult of celebrity can actually breed sociopathic criminals.

EDDIE MULLER, author, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir and founder of the Film Noir Foundation

Copyright 2015 by Pete Crooks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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First e-book edition: January 2015

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crooks, Pete.

The setup : a true story of dirty cops, soccer moms, and reality TV / by Pete Crooks.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-940363-31-8 (trade cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-940363-55-4 (electronic) 1. Butler, Chris (Private investigator) 2. Private investigatorsCalifornia. 3. Women private investigatorsPress coverageCalifornia. 4. Police corruption California. 5. Criminal investigationCorrupt practicesCalifornia. 6. Reality television programsCalifornia. I. Title.

HV8083.B87C76 2015

363.289092dc23

2014027929

Editing by Erin Kelley
Copyediting by Francesca Drago
Proofreading by Lisa Story and Harrison Flanders
Cover design by Pete Garceau
Text design and composition by John Reinhardt Book Design
Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing

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Significant discounts for bulk sales are available.
Please contact Glenn Yeffeth at or (214) 750-3628.

This book is dedicated to everyone who hates being lied to.

INTRODUCTION

F AME IS A VERY CURIOUS THING.

Many of those who have it wish they didnt. Many of those who desire it have no real understanding of what it means. But there are a very few who desire fame at any cost. Those few will lie, cheat, steal, sell narcotics, whatever they think they must do, with no consideration of the consequences. Fame is what they seek. They will have it no matter what.

Journalist Pete Crooks has very carefully reported a tale of people who believed that reality television was the fastest pathway to the fame they so desperately wanted. In many ways, this book is a cautionary tale to all those who believe fame is so important to obtain.

You, the reader, will be taken along on Crooks wild ride covering the bizarre story of reality TVs PI Moms, and observe as Crooks transforms from a writer of pop culture profiles into, as he puts it, an accidental investigative reporter. You will be given a unique insight into a house of cards constructed to lead to media fameand discover the more sinister behavior that was occurring just behind the curtain, when the cameras werent shooting.

As an experienced criminal investigator, I have seen this behavior on more occasions than I care to recall. During my years as a homicide detective in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I have interviewed all forms of liarsfrom simple charlatans to sociopathic killers. There are those among us who possess a certain moral flexibility that permits one awful thing to happen after another to reach the desired outcome.

As a result of my career, I was relentlessly pursued by television producers, and I finally agreed to do a show based on some of the 387 homicide cases that came across my desk. I am truly amazed, but Homicide Hunter: Lieutenant Joe Kenda has done very well on the Investigation Discovery network. As a result, I have accidentally achieved a small degree of fame. Which is meaningless to me.

But for the people in The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV, the desire to achieve fame overcame their judgment, their common sense, and in some cases, led to conspiratorial and criminal behavior.

I think you, the reader, will find the story fascinating.

JOE KENDA

Colorado Springs police detective, retired

Subject of the Investigation Discovery show Homicide Hunter:

Lieutenant Joe Kenda

THE RIDE-ALONG

Have We Got a Story for You

T HE BIGGEST STORY in my career as a journalist started as a puff piece.

When the story showed upfor me, at leastI was working as senior editor for Diablo, a monthly lifestyle magazine that covers dining, shopping, and society events in the suburban towns of the San Francisco Bay Area. Diablo is big and glossy and focuses on lifestyle stories in a very affluent area. Its a very cheerful magazine.

My beat has always had a heavy emphasis on entertainment. I write most of the magazines pop culture pieces and guides to the local arts scene. Any story about a local personality chasing the contemporary American Dream of celebrity is likely to fall on my desk.

And thats exactly what happened on August 23, 2010.