Meet Christine Marie, the Hero of Netflix’s ‘Trust Me: The False Prophet’
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Netflix‘s Trust Me: The False Prophet (2026) is a four-part documentary series that captured the rise of Samuel Bateman, the self-proclaimed heir to convicted child abuser Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). If you thought Jeffs was a bad guy, well, you’re right, but cult expert and sexual abuse survivor Dr. Christine Marie tells The Hollywood Reporter her friends inside the community say Bateman was even worse.
A decade before Rachel Dretzin‘s 2022 Netflix docuseries Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, which chronicled Jeffs’ crimes against children, arrest and life-plus-20-years sentencing, Marie, who has a PhD in psychology and a specialty in media psychology, and her videographer husband Tolga Katas moved to the tiny community of Short Creek, Utah, to help. They ended up helping more than they ever could have imagined.
Over several years there, the couple went undercover, kind of, to infiltrate Bateman’s cult and expose his despicable behavior. After gaining Bateman’s trust under the guise of filming footage for a straightforward documentary on his teachings, Katas’ camera captured evidence of continued awful abuses, including more sex crimes against minors. Footage was provided to the local police and the FBI, and then to Dretzin. The result was a number of arrests leading to lengthy prison sentences — Bateman is doing 50 years — as well as Trust Me: The False Prophet.
Read more https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/trust-me-false-prophet-christine-marie-interview-netflix-1236566834/
Content retrieved from: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/trust-me-false-prophet-christine-marie-interview-netflix-1236566834/.
