A wealthy Orange County couple’s twisted plot to frame the PTA president at their son’s school on phony drug charges is laid bare in a new true crime series.
Premiering on March 14 on Sundance TV, True Crime Story: Smugshot puts a spotlight on entitled criminals and the illegal acts they thought they could and should get away with.
The first episode, titled Revenge of the PTA Mom, focuses on Jill Easter, now known as Ava Everheart, and her former husband, Kent Easter, a pair of attorneys who waged war with school volunteer Kelli Peters before planting drugs in her car.
‘This case was bats**t crazy from the very beginning,’ civil attorney Rob Marcereau says in the docuseries.
Jill Easter, now known as Ava Everheart, and her former husband, Kent Easter, served time in prison after planting drugs in the car of Kelli Peters, the PTA president at their son’s school
Peters (pictures) opens up about the couple’s attempts to get her fired as a school volunteer and imprisoned over a schoolyard row in an upcoming episode of True Crime Story: Smugshot
Peters was a well-known school volunteer and the PTA president at Plaza Vista School in Irvine, California, when she inadvertently crossed Jill Easter on February 17, 2010.
The Easters’ six-year-old son, then a first-grader, was briefly locked outside the school under Peters’ watch.
The Easters, who were both attorneys, ruined their seemingly picture-perfect lives with their twisted revenge plot
Jill Easter felt her son wasn’t properly supervised and yelled at Peters, who apologized and tried to diffuse the situation.
However, when she tried to explain that the boy was slow to line up, the mother took it as a slight to her son’s intelligence.
The next day, Jill Easter tried to get Peters fired, but when the school sided with the volunteer, the mom launched a year-long campaign against her.
She started by handing out fliers smearing Peters’ name, which she denied doing years later during an appearance on Dr. Phil.
In March 2010, the Easters sued the PTA president over their son being locked out of the school, but the case was dismissed.
Jill Easter also filed police reports against Peters alleging that she was harassing her son. She tried to get a restraining order against her, claiming she was psychotic and unstable.
None of the allegations were substantiated, and the request for a restraining order was denied.
‘This case was bats**t crazy from the very beginning,’ civil attorney Rob Marcereau says in the docuseries, which premieres on Sundance TV on March 14
Jill Easters waged war against Peters, a volunteer at Plaza Vista School in Irvine, California, after her six-year-old son was accidentally locked out of the school under her watch in 2010
‘The fact that she was an attorney scared me,’ Peters recalls in the episode.
The feud came to a head on February 26, 2011, a year after Jill Easter had first confronted Peters.
Law enforcement officers were called to the school following a report that Peters had been driving erratically in the parking lot.
A man, speaking in an Indian accent, told the police that he thought Peters had been on drugs and had seen her place a package behind her driver’s seat.
When cops inspected the car, they found a large amount of marijuana along with packets of Vicodin and Percocet.
Peters was then questioned in the parking lot with the drugs placed on the hood of her car while people were leaving the school.
The Easters’ actions against Peters came to a head when they planted marijuana, Vicodin, and Percocet in her car and tried to get her arrested on drug charges in 2011
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The Easters, who divorced in the aftermath of their crime, served time in prison and were also ordered to pay $5.7 million in compensatory damages to Peters (pictured) and her family
However, officers soon became suspicious of the call after Peters passed a curbside sobriety test, and instead turned their attention to the Easters.
It later transpired that the police call had been placed from a hotel next to Ken Easter’s law firm, which was close to the school, and CCTV showed him walking in and placing the call.
Cell phone data also showed that the Easters had been close to Peters’ house where the car was parked the night before the drugs were discovered. Their DNA was later found on the drugs.
Jill Easter pleaded guilty to planting the drugs and was sentenced to 120 days in jail, while Ken Easter fought the charges at trial but was convicted after just 90 minutes of jury deliberations.
Ken Easter, a Stanford graduate, had his legal license suspended and spent 87 days in prison, while Jill Easter was disbarred from practicing entirely and was behind bars for 60 days,
The couple, who divorced in the aftermath of their crime, was also ordered to pay $5.7 million in compensatory damages to Peters and her family.
True Crime Story: Smugshot premieres Thursday, March 14 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SundanceTV, AMC+ and Sundance Now
