You may have thought the courtroom drama for Irvine’s Kelli Peters and Jill and Kent Easter ended last year, but it turns out we were just getting started.
And the stars are aligning for the Easters to try to screw over Peters yet again.
The Easters were the Irvine lawyer-turned-stay-at-home mom and her contract lawyer husband who first tried to sue elementary school volunteer Peters and then tried to get her arrested for possession of drugs they planted in her car. Why? Because the Easters thought Peters had insulted their then-6-year-old son (she hadn’t).
Both Easters were arrested and convicted in separate trials. that had After Jill pleaded guilty, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Hoffer sentenced her to 120 days in jail and 100 hours of community service. Judge Thomas Goethals sentenced Kent to six months behind bars, three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered him to stay the hell away from Peters and her family.
In a separate civil court action, Peters sued the Easters, alleging she, her husband and their daughter suffered fear, panic and anxiety due to the terrorizing of the Plaza Vista School volunteer. Peters’ suit seeks unspecified damages “for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.”
But there may not be much for Peters to collect in damages at the trial scheduled for later this year.
In the Easters’ divorce settlement finalized in OC Superior Court on Jan. 5, Kent agreed to pay $8,000 in monthly child support—in $4,000 payments on the first and 14th—that is split evenly between the couple’s three children. He is also to pay $4,000 a month in spousal support to his ex-wife.
The thing is, Kent Easter lost his license to practice law in California and is now working as a freelance legal consultant. Would he make much more than $12k and personal living expenses each month doing that?
Must not be, because last week Kent Easter filed for bankruptcy.
By the way, the Easters had disclosed long before the Mr.’s conviction in September that the Mrs. had an affair and that the marrieds had separated. But their divorce settlement states they did not separate until this past Dec. 15.
As the Weekly previously reported, Jill Easter wrote crime novels under the name Ava Bjork, then changed her real-life name to Ava Easter and then in July of last year changed her name legally to Ava Everheart. Kent and Jill/Eva also each requested that Everheart become the legal last name of their three children.
It’s unclear whether Jill Eas—, I mean, Ava Everheart will be attending any more court hearings soon. In yet another odd twist, the shamed helicopter parent now resides in Havana, Cuba, and has been in a romantic relationship since Jan. 22, according to her Facebook page.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.