Misfit
06-21-2012, 12:31 PM
Irvine pair accused in framing case aren't the usual suspects - latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-irvine-pta-20120621,0,7429609.story)
The tip was an unusual one, especially in a city often ranked as the safest in the nation.
The caller, who identified himself as a concerned parent, told an Irvine police dispatcher that he had seen a woman driving erratically, parking at Plaza Vista School, and hiding drugs in her car's back seat.
He had more help to offer: He knew the culprit's name. And he had a license plate.
Based on that call on the afternoon of Feb. 16, 2011, Irvine police pulled school volunteer Kelli Peters from the elementary school classroom where she was working and searched her car. They found a bag with marijuana, Percocet and Vicodin. She insisted the drugs were not hers, and had no idea how they got there.
When detectives tried to trace the call, authorities say, they found that it had come from the business center of a Newport Beach hotel. Police say surveillance video revealed the tipster to be Kent Easter, 38, a parent at Plaza Vista and a lawyer.
This week, Easter and his wife, Jill, also a 38-year-old attorney, were accused of trying to frame Peters, currently the school's PTA president, in retaliation for what they alleged was her ill treatment of their young son at the school.
The tip was an unusual one, especially in a city often ranked as the safest in the nation.
The caller, who identified himself as a concerned parent, told an Irvine police dispatcher that he had seen a woman driving erratically, parking at Plaza Vista School, and hiding drugs in her car's back seat.
He had more help to offer: He knew the culprit's name. And he had a license plate.
Based on that call on the afternoon of Feb. 16, 2011, Irvine police pulled school volunteer Kelli Peters from the elementary school classroom where she was working and searched her car. They found a bag with marijuana, Percocet and Vicodin. She insisted the drugs were not hers, and had no idea how they got there.
When detectives tried to trace the call, authorities say, they found that it had come from the business center of a Newport Beach hotel. Police say surveillance video revealed the tipster to be Kent Easter, 38, a parent at Plaza Vista and a lawyer.
This week, Easter and his wife, Jill, also a 38-year-old attorney, were accused of trying to frame Peters, currently the school's PTA president, in retaliation for what they alleged was her ill treatment of their young son at the school.