Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
FBI's Most Wanted Cop Gets Arrested : Exploiting & Airlifting Inmates
Sun, 12 Jan 2025
Brendan Butler stars his story as a corrupt correctional officer and then how he was arrested by the FBI. Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What led to Brendan Butler's arrest?
I had no consequences. I'd just be quick to punch you or go piss right in your cell. Because in order for a facility to run smoothly, you can't be by the book. A lot of inmates were getting airlifted out. But this is where my downfall came. I applied. And literally I got the job like on the spot. Like you can start like three days later. It's fast. It's fast. That's insane. Yeah.
And the background check was basically nothing. If you have a heartbeat and you're okay, you're talking and you have a heartbeat. Department of Corrections will take it.
Okay. Where did you end up? Like how long before you actually went in? Did they, was there any training at all? Like, or is it on the job training?
So this is how Florida does it. I don't know about the other states. I know that federal doesn't do this. So when you get hired, literally they put you onto a shift. So I started working night shift on, on this one shift. So seven and seven at night.
This is on the job training.
It's unbelievable. But it's like, They don't even give you anything to protect yourself. You don't even know any policy. They don't even give you a radio. You just have what they call a panic button. Right. Hitting the deuces.
Yeah, the deuces.
And if that even works, because it's supposed to pick up to the closest alarm of the dorm or if you're like in medical or something.
Right. And all the guards come supposed to come immediately to run to help you. Right. Do you ever know policy or you just hang out and you're just on the job training until you're eventually on your own? Right.
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Chapter 2: How does the hiring process work for correctional officers?
Right. Okay.
So it is part of keeping the peace, right? But you're too friendly. They just walk all over you.
Right.
So I learned a lot from him, you know, but I also dissected what I didn't like I seen him do. And I never told him this.
Yeah.
But I'm just watching because from that moment when I worked with him and he was letting me do things that I'm not even supposed to do, I knew I wanted to do that and I wasn't going to stop. That's what I wanted to do inside of working in the prison. So I got to experience and get my name out there by doing a lot of things.
Like, he would even let me fight some inmates because they would disrespect me to him.
Right.
Like, I looked at it as a racial thing, right? Because they said cracker. Right. I'm from New York. Like, we don't even use the word cracker like that unless you're trying to insult someone. But here in Florida, they say cracker.
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Chapter 3: What is on-the-job training like for correctional officers?
So then I would say something to him, and he would say something back. And next thing you know, now we have an issue. And he would be so nervous. He'd be like, and then I'd be like, no, this is what's going to happen. And we would settle our problems. It's insane, bro. It is insane.
Yeah.
But it got me the respect from the inmates. And I'm not sitting here and saying, oh, I beat everyone's ass. No, not at all. You know, I didn't care. if I got, or if you got off on me, or if I got off on you, it was a respect thing.
Yeah. I was going to say it's, it's, it's what you definitely realize. It really, honestly, you realize this in high school. Like some, it's really, it's more about being willing to fight than it is actually winning the fight. Of course you want to win the fight. Nobody wants to get their ass beat, but it's so much worse.
If you just don't fight, you'd rather, you'd rather fight and lose than to not fight at all. Then it's much, much worse than people. Then everybody disrespects you. I mean,
And that goes for officers too, because now officers, they talk reckless sometimes, right? So when an inmate talks reckless back, you can't be quick to lock him up and put him in the shoe because you opened that door to disrespect him. He didn't disrespect you first in that situation. And now everyone's going to disrespect you.
Now, good luck trying to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish as a correction officer. It's not going to happen when you don't have the respect. And I didn't go the best route, obviously, which landed me in federal prison as an inmate myself. I could have went about it a different way, but I still gained the respect in a way. And we're men at the end of the day.
You're an inmate, I'm an officer, but you're still a man at the end of the day. I have a job to do. It's your job to do what you do and get away with it. And it's my job to catch you. And when I catch you, there's no hard feelings. And if you get away with it for a long time, there's no hard feelings. It's just, it's the nature of the beast.
So what happened when you, did you end up going, you go to the Academy or do you go to the Academy?
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Chapter 4: What are the dangers of working as a correctional officer?
Right? But they used the MK-9 on me, and that's what only sergeants have. They call it Black Jesus.
Why?
Because you're going to see black and you're going to be crying for Jesus. That's how bad it is. It's bad. They call it Black Jesus. So you're supposed to have your eyes closed.
but they were messing with me and they were like they were like yo and i opened up my eyes and they and they sprayed me bad bad and then they have like these like padded like bats and they were all just like beating the shit out of me while i had to do all these like little obstacles right but it was fun it was a good it was a funny experience but it was definitely a little rough
So, I mean, did you end up on that? Yeah, right away.
As soon as I passed the academy, which is like three months, approximately three months. And you pass the state certification test because you have to pass a test for the academy. And then you got to pass a state board that has nothing to do with the prison. It has to do with, you know, FDLE, Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Then you're officially a certified officer.
Nothing.
Right. $34,000 maybe? I was going to say, I know that I think federal, the first year, like the feds, they're like $35,000 or $38,000. It's very little money.
But it goes up more in the feds.
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Chapter 5: How do gangs operate within prisons?
Yeah.
That, and that's how I'll do it. Or if I didn't like you, I'll walk by you and be like, yo, thank you for the information you gave me yesterday. It was very helpful. I'm going to go get them later.
Fucking God.
They would look like, what? I didn't say shit. What? I have the paperwork inside. You want me to come show it? Or are you going to shut your mouth? Which one are you going to do? But I would only do that with problematic inmates that no one, even these other inmates didn't want.
Right.
You know, like not too many inmates had a problem with me. except the ones that were, you know, some of them are gang related, you know, some of them were affiliates, but there was a problem. I had a reason to come for you. I wasn't just picking on you because, you know, your pants weren't tucked in or you sucked your teeth or you didn't get up when we told you to get up.
It wasn't really like that. I had a job and that was strictly to keep things going and to minimize the potential damages that these gangs caused.
What are some of the issues that these guys are causing?
Like the main ones that make you want to... So most of the problems that these inmates cause are what the gangs, at least, is the extortion. Extortion is huge. And people write... Even if they're getting extorted, they're going to write a complaint on you. And like I said, the staff don't really care about that. But enough of them come... Enough from enough different people come...
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Chapter 6: What role does contraband play in prison life?
Chapter 7: How do correctional officers manage inmate behavior?
No, those are the dudes that still have the mind of a young convict. They just more mature and know how to go under the radar and not be so loud and put attention on yourself. So it would be like in common areas as well. So a lot of inmates didn't like to have the stuff in their cell. All the time. Right. Because they do a lot of searches. This institution I work at, they did a lot of searches.
So they will put it in common areas. You know, especially in an open bay dorm, they'll have like a long counter. Just a little taller than this. All the way down, I have like eight sinks on one side, eight sinks on the other side, right? And I had like a metal casing. And somehow they shimmied. And it's kind of genius because the officer station is five feet away.
All they have to do is look to the left and they could see in the bathroom and see it. So how they did it, I don't know. And they opened it and then they put some type of plywood. So when you open it, you just think that's the framing.
Right.
But that plywood, they must've, I don't even know how they got the plywood, honestly, maybe from the tool card or grounds workers got it, but they had the plywood and And the only reason why we were able to find it is because the plywood wasn't as long as the whole, you know, counter of the bathroom. So it was missing about like...
a foot two feet so we're like if that was the found if that was the the wooden framing of this yeah it would have covered it right so they're like pull it up and a whole as soon as you pulled up the wood you know plywood that they had it just fell inside and that's where we we found all the um alcohol. There was a couple of cell phones in there and they had all organized.
So when they opened it, they know whose is, whose is what, like what sink it was in front of.
Yeah. But if it's a common area, you can't know whose it is. Right. And the other thing is, so you'll, a lot of guys will have, you know, like there's one guy and they're like 10 guys or five guys paying that guy to, he keeps the phone, keeps the phone for you, keeps it charged up, make sure it's available for you all the time. And if he gets hit,
If his place gets searched and they find the cell phone, he says, that's my cell phone. He's going to the shoe. He has to go to the shoe. He doesn't say, ah, man, that's Jimmy's fucking phone. No, no, that's your phone. You're going to the shoe. But he might be getting $100 or $200 from eight different guys. He's making $800 or $1,000 a month. He's living really well.
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Chapter 8: What are the consequences of corruption in the prison system?
Because I very rarely wrote a DR. Very rarely. That wasn't my style. I was going to get you out a different way. I was going to get you out a different way. Or have someone else get you out a different way.
So what ends up happening? How does this go bad?
So what actually happened had nothing to do with the gang thing at all. I went to a backup call. They were requesting assistance. And I don't know. I very rarely went to them, to be honest with you. But this one day, I guess I was nearby. I went. And there was one YO unit there. Useful Offender Unit. But... Here's the thing, it was not like 12, 13 year olds. It was like 21 to 24.
Because here in Florida, I don't know why, but you can still be a Y.O. at 24 years old. So if you get charged for the first time at 24, most likely you'd be charged as an adult. But like if you got charged when you were like 18 as a Y.O. and you got sentenced to a couple years, you're still considered a Y.O. up until 24. Okay. So this was a dorm that's introducing them outside of the Y.O.
dorm to a main compound. So now they're in a dorm, but they don't eat at the same time, and their dorm is sectioned off with gates. Right? Right. So they're still on the compound, but they're not really a part of the compound. I never even stepped foot in there. I never even talked to a Y.O. Even if I heard, oh, you got to go check this Y.O.
out because I'm STG related, I wouldn't even go talk to him. Probably not even verified. He's not in the system. I don't care what he's claiming. I'm not going to waste my time. So I went there for assistance. And I had an officer that was... kind of like not under my wing, but I worked with him. I was just a higher rank than him, you know, but I didn't look at him any less or anything.
And he would put in a lot of, a lot of work. He was, he was, he was kind of on a radar to FBI radar. I don't know, but definitely OIG radar, which is internal affairs. Right. So, cause he was, he was, he would be quick, like maybe for no reason to do something to you. Like if, if you were in need of help, he's definitely one person that you would want there for him. I'll give him that.
Right.
So he happened to be there. And it was all female staff at the dorm, and these inmates were going wild. And these are some big dudes. We're not talking about little skinny 24-year-olds. We're talking about some big kids, you know, that been in the system a while. And some of the Y.O. camps here in Florida are just as vicious as me.
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