Irvine lawyer gets jail sentence in drug-planting scheme against PTA volunteer

An Irvine lawyer was sentenced to six months in jail Friday for his part in a revenge scheme that involved planting drugs in a school volunteer’s car.

An Orange County Superior Court judge also ordered Kent Easter, 40, to serve three years of informal probation after his release. He had faced a maximum of three years in prison.

Last month, a jury convicted Easter of one felony count of false imprisonment by deceit for plotting with his wife, Jill Bjorkholm Easter, to frame a PTA volunteer.

Jill Easter, 41, pleaded guilty last year to one felony count of false imprisonment by deceit and was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of formal probation.

In February 2011, Kent Easter drove to the volunteer’s house and put Vicodin, Percocet, marijuana and a drug pipe behind the seat of her car, prosecutors said.

He then called Irvine police using a false name and said he had seen the volunteer hide a bag of drugs in her car after driving erratically through an elementary school parking lot.

Police responded to the school and found the bag, but the volunteer “adamantly told the officer that the drugs did not belong to her and she did not know how they ended up in her car,” according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Irvine police detained the volunteer for about two hours until officers determined she had been in a classroom at the time Kent Easter alleged she was hiding the drugs.

The volunteer allowed police to search her home, and they found no evidence linking her to the prescription pills and marijuana, prosecutors said.

Investigators cleared the volunteer of any wrongdoing and found the Easters’ DNA on the planted drugs and paraphernalia.

The Easters were texting each other while executing the scheme, according to the DA’s office.

At trial, Kent Easter’s defense painted him as a weak-willed husband who did whatever his wife told him.

Prosecutors said the Easters targeted the volunteer because of an argument in 2010 when Jill Easter said the volunteer didn’t bring out her son quickly enough when she picked him up at Plaza Vista Elementary School in Irvine.

Before planting the drugs, the Easters tried to get the volunteer fired and filed a lawsuit against her, according to prosecutors.

The Easters had been members of the State Bar of California since 1998. Jill Easter was suspended in March because of her conviction and has since been disbarred, records show.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Adolfo Flores contributed to this report.