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00:00My name is Christopher Duth, and I'm a senior district attorney for the County of Orange.
00:06It's really one of the weirdest cases I've ever encountered.
00:09This case was batshit crazy from the very beginning.
00:14Everything about this is lunacy.
00:16It was a shocking plot against the PTA president.
00:19These are not my drugs. I'm not going to jail.
00:22The amount of time they spent to ruin this woman makes no sense at all.
00:27A couple so picture-perfect, their wedding portrait was featured on TheKnot.com.
00:31This couple had a complete breakdown. She lied.
00:35These two thought they were above the law.
00:38This is when I needed someone, and you turned your back on me, and I will not survive this.
00:47I always thought they would get away with it.
00:57We have to wait.
01:05We have to wait.
01:06Let's wait.
01:07We have to wait.
01:09We have to wait.
01:10We have to wait.
01:11This is the last time I ever watched.
01:14This is the last time I was reading.
01:18This is my dancing.
01:20I can't wait.
01:23so this is my old neighborhood these are the apartments over there and I'm just
01:30gonna go through this neighborhood cuz kind of cute we had a cool little place
01:35right across from the school and I was super excited every day to come to the
01:40school and volunteer yeah I ran the meet the masters art program and the after
01:45school program and I was on the PTA she was always willing to volunteer for
01:51everything she could never say no I logged in some hours the schools that's
01:56mainly why a lot of people come here to Irvine people came from everywhere to
02:01live in Irvine Irvine is very much a master planned community it's cookie cutter
02:06type neighborhood very wealthy the houses all look the same Irvine does not have
02:12any liquor stores or bars all the kids walk to school or ride their bikes you've
02:17got sidewalks everywhere everything is green it just feels really really safe
02:21safe safe it's just a very safe place to live
02:26Irvine please yes hi my daughter's a student at Plaza Vista Elementary School
02:32we're at Plaza Vista Elementary School this is where the the crime occurred I was in
02:40the front office and I saw a police car drive up and I was asking if Kelly Peters
02:46was here I went back and got Kelly and she didn't know what it was about she's
02:50saying you know she thought did her her husband get in an accident or you know
02:54she didn't know what had happened and I ran up there and I was in tears did
02:59something happen to Bill and they were like you know no no calm down you know no
03:03nothing happened to your husband I was like oh okay so what's up you know and he
03:09said can you get the keys to your car very very stern I said sure but why there
03:17was a report of reckless driving somebody impaired maybe a DUI driver
03:21somebody was impaired driving on campus then he took her outside and I guess
03:27walked over to her car I can see that my car is surrounded by police and at the
03:33time there was a helicopter flying over and I joked and said is there a dead body
03:38in my car or something and he stopped me he said I need you to stop talking so
03:43you specifically saw her place something behind her seat the phone call mentioned
03:49that you would put drugs in the backseat of your car and I was like what no they
03:55walked up to the car and just a quick plain view search of the vehicle from the
04:00outside could see drugs in a pretty big bag of marijuana just in plain view they went in
04:05the pocket and started pulling out bags of pills this was all of a sudden very
04:10serious drugs in a car on campus during school hours are a big deal in the bag we
04:16found about 30 Vicodin pills and then we found the second bag which had about 10
04:20pills in it which later we found out were Percocet at the time to have those
04:24drugs without a prescription was a felony when I first heard that they had
04:28found drugs in Kelly's car my initial reaction was there's no way then you start
04:33getting your second thoughts right I mean Kelly's free-loving she's hippie maybe
04:37she's got pot in her car and maybe she forgot to take it out people started to
04:41question oh is Kelly for real oh is she the nice bubbly lady is she on drugs is
04:47she selling drugs did she bring those drugs to school to sell so you start
04:51thinking like oh gosh maybe she did they pulled out the marijuana put it on the
04:55hood of the police car and then bags of pills and then a pipe and putting it on top of
05:02the police car it was right when school was being dispersed and kids were coming
05:07out her daughter was coming out she was gonna see this parents are driving by kids
05:13are getting out of school and I was like please put the drugs away this is gonna
05:18be in the minds of these children please put the drugs somewhere else please and I
05:24I was just begging him she was on her knees crying begging that he doesn't arrest her
05:32they brought me inside of the school in front of everybody they took me inside this conference room
05:42they did a drug test drunk test she kind of seemed believable as she was doing this he still didn't
05:51completely rule her out as a suspect he's like I don't think she did it but I'm not positive she
05:56gave consent for the officers to search her house once he searched the house he didn't find anything
06:01that would tie her to the possession of the drugs they asked me questions the same questions over
06:06and over again do you think your husband's having an affair do you think that maybe he
06:10planted them I was like what why would you even say that well do you have any enemies and I said no I
06:18have no enemies I'm no I have no nobody would do this to me and then I remember Heather the principal
06:24saying you know you do have an enemy you're not remembering what about Jill and Kent Easter and
06:30then she said oh my gosh it's been exactly a year it's been exactly a year well I have an enemy I guess I do have an enemy
06:54hi my name is Annette Homewood and I am auditioning for the role of Jill Easter
07:06hi I'm Jill Easter hi I'm Jill Easter I grew up in Orange County of course I wanted to go to the best
07:16school so I went to UC Berkeley became a you know practicing lawyer and that's where I met my
07:24husband Kent that young love hi I'm auditioning for the role of Kent Easter oh she definitely
07:32wears the pants she's the boss and I just can't say no to her we eventually decided we wanted to
07:38have family we moved back down to Irvine it's the best place to raise kids they have fantastic schools
07:43I had to stop practicing of course because I just felt like I couldn't really devote all my attention to
07:48anything but my kids I mean I knew Jill like superficially she was nice pleasant she's a
07:56beautiful woman so she always looked really good her hair looked great or makeup looked great or clothes
08:00looked great she always came off as very polished and very put together Kent Easter and Jill Easter you
08:06know they're wealthy individuals Kent Easter was a partner at a very big law firm making a lot of
08:12money Jill Easter went to a very good law school they're both lawyers so that carries its own extra
08:18sort of status I think Jill Easter was one of our parents and she had a child who was in first grade a
08:24little boy she was very concerned about her kids a mother always keeps her children safe they have GPS
08:32detectors oh they didn't have this back then did they okay most parents in Irvine I would characterize as
08:39her parents and her parents and her parents so I don't I didn't think that she was any different than any other
08:43parents when you have kids something happens as a mother and you will do anything to
08:48protect them you will do anything to make sure that they have the best life possible
08:52because honestly they are my greatest achievement
09:03who is Jill Easter I described her to the jury as someone who was highly
09:09educated entitled vindictive and capable of doing almost anything
09:39like Jill Easter you know someone you read about but never believe actually exists pretty much the last person in the world you would want to have been in their cross hairs
10:03much the last person in the world you would want to have being in their crosshairs.
10:11You got to understand it wasn't just that Kelly was detained for a couple hours at the school,
10:16she had been harassed and tormented by these two for months. And it didn't start with the
10:23drug planting, it started much earlier. And it all got set off by one incident at school.
10:33Jill was a little late getting there. She came inside and was asking where the kids were from
10:41the class. And I said, well, most of them are gone, but your child should be here soon. Let me get Kelly.
10:49I was having a very normal day. All the after school classes had gotten out. I match up the kids
10:55with their parents and make sure everybody goes home safely with the right person. Kelly's procedure
11:00was that she would have all the kids come through the school. So if you didn't come up with me the
11:06first time, the door would lock. Sometimes the kids don't come in with me the first time through the
11:11back door. They like to stay behind and help the coaches clean up. And Luke was one of those kids.
11:18I guess he was banging on the back door, crying. And then the teacher saw him,
11:23and the teacher walked him around to the front of the school. And Jill got very upset. The fact
11:30that her son was so upset. I feel terrible. Please accept my apology. Jill was screaming and yelling
11:37at Kelly. And with that, Kelly said, come on, let's go outside. I just did my best as a representative
11:45of the school. I just stood there and took it. Kelly was trying to calm her down. And she was
11:51getting more and more upset. Finally, I just looked at her and said, I'm not doing this anymore. And I
11:57walked away. I made the mistake that day of telling Jill that her son was slow lining up. It was just that
12:08he was slow in getting to the door, like a straggler, like lots of kids are. Nothing wrong with that.
12:14Well, Jill Easter took that to mean that she was calling her son slow, dim-witted. And that's what
12:21set it off. The next day, Jill Easter came in and wanted to talk to the principal. She was trying to
12:31get Kelly fired from her volunteer job. And the school, Riley Soho, said, no way. And they investigated
12:38it, too, because they take every complaint like that seriously. And they wanted to vet it and make sure
12:42nothing inappropriate happened. And they cleared Kelly. But that didn't satisfy Jill Easter.
12:49Jill started a campaign against me. She would stand out in front of the school. She had made a flyer
12:56to hand out to people really to smear my name. People need to be warned about Kelly Peters. So I shared
13:03these flyers with everybody involved. I've seen her act in ways that are despicable. This school will
13:10not be safe. Your children will not be safe until Kelly Peters is out of here.
13:14Every day, I woke up to some bizarre thing that was happening to me.
13:23The Easter's would not let this go. Each week, it seemed to escalate. They complained to the
13:28superintendent. They complained to the state of California. After that, she filed a police report,
13:34saying, oh, she's harassing my son. Nobody was listening to me.
13:38Everyone kept telling her no, which seemed to enrage her more and more.
13:44She did not understand who she was doing this to.
13:47So after that, she got her husband, Kent Easter, to file a lawsuit in Orange County
13:53Superior Court against Kelly Peters.
13:56I love my wife. Don't get me wrong. She's great. But sometimes, uh, well, she can take things a little
14:03too far. The fact that she was an attorney scared me. I believe there were already three lawsuits
14:09happening. You don't want to mess with two attorneys, of course.
14:12I mean, legal fees are expensive. When you go up against a powerful lawyer, you're talking about
14:17tens of thousands of dollars to defend yourself. She had me followed by private investigators.
14:22Here's a copy of the restraining order that Jill Easter filled out. She filed a restraining
14:28order against me for trying to kill her. The Easter systematically tried to destroy Kelly Peters.
14:41There was no indication that any of the allegations made by
14:45Jill were substantiated in any way. No, I'm not going to let this go. Not until she is gone.
14:51We even had an email from Jill to Kent Easter saying, I need the following things done.
14:58Exhaust the criminal code for charges against her. I want to do a background check on Kelly Peters.
15:04I want to serve her while she's at school tomorrow. I want to include a settlement agreement,
15:10which states she cannot volunteer in any position that would put her in a school. Kelly Peters is not
15:16nice. It's all a facade. Why are we letting this no one abuse our son and then trash our family? Why?
15:29You know, all this stress is starting to get to me. I'm starting to be paranoid. I mean,
15:33it was awful. And eventually it got very quiet. I remember having conversations with several of my
15:39friends. I think she finally gave up. I think, I think we're finally okay. Irvine was rated the number one
15:45city, safest city to live in. And I'm like, uh, I beg to differ.
15:53But I knew in my gut, something was wrong.
15:56Irvine, please.
16:04Yes. Hi. I was calling, uh, because, uh, my daughter's a student at Plaza Vista Elementary School.
16:09Uh-huh.
16:10I'm sure one of the parent volunteers there may be, uh, using drugs. Uh, I saw a car driving very erratically.
16:15It looked like she, she had some, uh, like, like, like, uh, uh, like pills or something.
16:20Okay. What, what is your name? My name is, uh, Jake.
16:26I've listened to that many times. I kind of thought it was suspicious the way it came out.
16:30There was a distinct stutter in there that we caught.
16:32Tears there may be, uh, uh, uh, uh, under, uh, under the influence.
16:36He was volunteering a ton of information without even being asked.
16:40And it has a, like a, like a rim that says, uh, oh, it's groovy.
16:45It was, it seemed scripted. It seemed like somebody was faking an accent.
16:49They'd kind of go back and forth between having an accent and not having an accent.
16:52And what's your last name?
16:53Uh, Chandrasekar.
16:55How do you spell that?
16:56D-H-A-N-T-R-A-S-E-K-H-R.
17:06So we also, as part of the case, played a recording of the phone call to the Irvine police.
17:14He adopts a phony Indian accent.
17:18My name's Yvonne Prado. I'm a dispatcher here with the Irvine police department.
17:23On February 16th, 2011, I took a call that struck me as suspicious.
17:29The gentleman went from speaking with no accent, and then he, he switched to an Indian accent,
17:36like, midway through the call. And then it just kind of veered off into kind of raising red flags.
17:44I think Jay Chandrasekar is an actor from, uh, the Broken Lizard comedy movies.
17:50There you have it. You're doing it all wrong. You gotta open your throat.
17:53You'll note, he knew how to spell Chandrasekar.
17:57Exactly.
17:59C-H-A-N-T-R-A-S-E-K-H-R.
18:03Okay. Alrighty, we're gonna go out there and make sure everything's okay, all right?
18:07Well, thank you.
18:08Uh-huh. Bye-bye.
18:11Tracing the 911 call turned out to be very challenging.
18:16Irvine police.
18:17The call came into our front desk, and because of that, we actually didn't get the incoming phone
18:22number. We had to search warrant our own phone company to get the call that came in. It's crazy,
18:27because he didn't, but he's smart. He didn't call 911. That call had been initiated from the Island
18:34Hotel in the city of Newport Beach.
18:36The detective that went out there worked for hours working with hotel staff to get that surveillance video.
18:49There's multiple cameras that followed the suspect throughout the hotel.
18:52He walked in the front doors of the hotel on foot, holding a notepad,
18:59all the way into the business center when the phone call was made to Irvine PD.
19:02The police came back quite a bit after the incident and kept on asking questions. And then,
19:10when I saw the video, it was very noticeable who it was. Kent Easter.
19:17And then, of course, I heard the voice, and I went, and that's his voice.
19:30Kent Easter was a partner at one of the biggest, most white shoe law firms in Orange County.
19:38This is a photo of the Island Hotel. Kent Easter's law firm was in this building.
19:44I mean, he had offices in Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It's kind of an ivory tower.
19:49Right outside of his office? I mean, my goodness, who does that?
19:53What is going on here? I mean, this is reality TV stuff.
19:58I guess they didn't realize there was video cameras, I mean, in hotels.
20:02We tried to do a simultaneous search warrant at both locations. Kent Easter's home,
20:09as well as his place of employment, which is a law firm in Newport Beach.
20:14I was told that they were going to be hard to arrest. It's because they were both attorneys.
20:21There was a lot of thought that just went into, how do you get an attorney who committed a crime to talk?
20:26We were working 15, sometimes 20-hour days to get to this point. A lot of investigative work went into this.
20:32Kent was the goal, really, to get him and find a place that he would likely talk to us.
20:37And in following him and doing some surveillance, we knew where he would park.
20:40We knew what time he started work. He developed a pattern. He was a little surprised, but he played it off really good.
20:51Got any idea what the heck we're talking about?
20:54No, I don't.
20:55Nothing like that?
20:56Yeah, yeah.
20:57Okay. It'll come full circle to you. I know you're a smart man.
21:01Yeah, I am a smart guy.
21:02And I appreciate what you're saying and the fact that, obviously, you have been interested in me for some reason.
21:11And, uh...
21:11He denied knowing anything about the day that the drugs were planted in a car, any police activity or anything like that.
21:24He wasn't telling the truth, but he was locking himself into a lie.
21:28These two had a very good knowledge of the law and they also hired two of the best attorneys in Southern California.
21:35Sometimes you might just request maybe text messages or call record logs, but we requested tower information.
21:42Really everything that you could possibly ask for for the phones, we did.
21:46They had their cell phones rather than using any type of burner cell phone.
21:49We could see that they were calling each other during the early morning hours.
21:53We could also see that their phones were pinging off of towers next to Kelly Peters' residence.
21:59So this is the apartment complex that Kelly lived in.
22:02It actually happened at about between 2.30 and 4.30 a.m.
22:07I mean, they went in the middle of the night and planted these drugs.
22:10You know, some crooks would leave their phones at home or turn their phones off.
22:14But in this case, both Jill and Kent's phone were on and they were communicating, we could see all of this.
22:19I was shocked that they could have anything to do with this.
22:24They're two attorneys. Why would they ever risk something like that?
22:27It offended me personally that somebody in the legal community would do such a thing.
22:33Didn't treat her like someone, you know, as educated as they were.
22:37I think that they thought they were powerful people that could order people around and were used to getting what they wanted.
22:43Every day started to become so stressful for me because I just didn't know what was going to happen.
22:49They thought they were above the law.
22:52Really?
22:53Clearly not.
22:56So before anything happened, I took on more responsibility at the school.
23:01They gave me a desk at the front.
23:03I had a real place there.
23:05I thought, I want to work with kids.
23:07I just loved it.
23:08So I decided that I was going to get my teaching credential and be a substitute teacher.
23:14And the teachers would say, if you get your teaching credential, we will for sure hire you.
23:19That was my big plan.
23:20Did you do that?
23:21No.
23:22Okay.
23:22Drugs were planted in my car instead.
23:24Right.
23:24Yeah.
23:26She's been called the mom from hell.
23:29But Jill Easter says everyone has the facts all wrong.
23:33Jill is here speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview.
23:37Do you hold her responsible for not properly supervising and protecting your son?
23:45I'm not even sure it was negligence.
23:47What do you mean?
23:48I think it was purposeful.
23:50What would be her motive?
23:52She would have to answer that.
23:53There were parents that didn't want me at the school.
24:03They were convinced that I did this.
24:06I wasn't allowed to say anything.
24:08I could not defend myself.
24:09I was not allowed to say anything to anybody.
24:11Kelly and her family, I was immediately struck by how affected they were by all of this.
24:18They were scared.
24:20I would be out walking my dogs and someone would yell out the window,
24:24we don't want you at the school anymore.
24:27And then after the drug planting, there was a whole year before the Easter's got arrested.
24:32So Kelly and her family were living in fear.
24:35What on earth are these crazy people going to do to us next?
24:40I was transferred into a new unit.
24:42I was just kind of going through the new files, learning about each one.
24:46And I came across the Easter case that was still being worked on and hadn't been filed yet.
24:53Well, I mean, the facts of this case are from a movie.
24:57They are almost unbelievable.
24:59Ironically, even though Jill Easter wrote a book about committing the perfect crime,
25:05amazingly, the Easter's left so many clues.
25:08Jill Easter was an amateur author who self-published this sort of racy novel
25:16about an MMA fighter who got embroiled in this drug scheme and was trying to commit the perfect crime.
25:24Admitting the existence of her desire felt like jumping off a cliff.
25:28But it was a big deal to Sunny because she already knew what she wanted, sex.
25:35I don't have the right underwear for this, then take them off.
25:44Kent Easter actually narrated a promo video for the book.
25:49If you knew how to commit the perfect crime, would you do it?
25:53The crime is shockingly simple and 100% possible.
25:59No one will get hurt, and there's no way they can get caught.
26:02And they posted it on YouTube. When?
26:10The day after they planted the drugs in Kelly Peters' car.
26:14Oh, my goodness. Why don't you just say, here I am. I did it.
26:18The detectives from Irvine police called me and said, hey, what's going on with this case?
26:24Are you going to file it? And I looked at it and I said, I think it's ready to go.
26:28There was cellular phone evidence. They used their own personal cell phones rather than burner cell
26:33phones. We had the DNA evidence. I mean, they planted drugs without wearing any gloves,
26:38which is mind-boggling to me that people so smart wouldn't think about leaving their DNA.
26:44I mean, who does that? It's insane.
26:47They were told that they would not be arrested, that they'd be allowed to turn themselves in.
26:51And we decided that that was not the appropriate way to handle the case,
26:54that they shouldn't be given special treatment. That was a shock to them and a blow to them.
26:59It doesn't matter if you're rich or powerful or you're a lawyer,
27:03you break the law, you're going down.
27:05It doesn't matter if the rain is gone, I can see it crystal clear.
27:14I know haters want to murder me. I burn them to the third degree. I bring that heat,
27:18man, you dudes as Wayne grow. Bieber in the same pose like Eleanor's Kango. Beats,
27:23I bang those like flows in the hallway. King talk, hard like Iron Mike Ringwald. The champ is here.
27:30Godspeed, the camp is here. Now that the rain is gone, I can see it crystal clear. Things ain't what they
27:35appear. On the road, I stare. And cowards get caught up in the lights like this. I turn.
27:50So when the Easter's finally got arrested, I didn't know when it was going to happen,
27:55or if it was going to happen, or where it was going to happen. I was not being kept in the loop.
28:01It was right as school was getting out, Jill and Kent had gotten arrested, and I was finally,
28:08you know, off the hook.
28:22Sir, did you knowingly participate in a scheme with your wife to frame Kelly Peters?
28:31No.
28:38I thought I was doing a lot for my family and for my son.
28:43I really love my wife, and I want to do anything for her. I care about her enough to put my own needs,
28:49I guess, below hers. You do crazy things for love, I think.
28:54It was weird. It was crazy to hear that a guy of that stature would have gotten involved in something
29:03like this. But I think where all went wrong for him is when it came to his wife, he was just weak.
29:12He did what he was told. And that's not to excuse his behavior. It's not to say he didn't know what he
29:18was doing. He knew full well what he was doing. He knew better. But in an effort to placate his wife,
29:26who was the mastermind of this whole crazy scheme, he did it. He followed through with it,
29:32and he thought he was going to get away with it.
29:34For someone that doesn't know, what's the definition of cuckold?
29:46Kent Easter and Jill Easter worked together with this cuckold defense to try to ensure that Kent
29:55escaped criminal consequences. Why? Because they knew if he got convicted, he'd lose his bar license. He
30:03would lose his ability to make all that money and support the family. This is a case of a trusting
30:11husband. No more, no less. But it's also a case that sadly, as we've all learned after the fact,
30:18about a dishonest wife. It came out during the criminal trial that Jill Easter was having an
30:26affair with a firefighter. He testified that he knew his wife was having an affair. It was essentially,
30:35he was in a cuckold relationship. She ordered him around. This was his own defense lawyers putting this
30:41stuff up. These racy text messages, these x-rated emails about this affair. And it was all laid bare for
30:52the public to see. Hi, my name is Sean, auditioning for Fireman slash Jill's Lover.
31:03While they were doing surveillance, they noticed a suspicious male walk up, kind of looking around,
31:08looking at the detectives that were in undercover cars, made him pretty much figured out they were
31:12detectives, something's wrong, quickly turned around and walked away. And shortly after, they saw
31:16Jill Easter run out of the house in lingerie and then run back into the house. And the detectives
31:24realized they were probably compromised. It's then that kind of triggered the search warrant service
31:28at the house. And then one of our detectives followed that male who left and realized that he
31:35was there to have an affair with Jill. Jill Easter was having a torrid affair with a firefighter.
31:43We found out he was a firefighter. He had been having an affair, romantic relationship with Jill for,
31:49I think, about two and a half years. He was in love with her. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
31:55There were other of her friends that were involved. There were some other
31:58of his firefighter friends that were involved. And it would happen when Kent would go to work.
32:11He was very cooperative with us from the very beginning. He ultimately did some covert calls
32:16for us trying to get Jill to talk. He also agreed to wear wire to meet with Jill at a nearby park.
32:23I don't know.
32:25Because they were calling me and asking me all these questions about this girl. And I'm like,
32:29what's that? What's that? Do you think I hurt some girls?
32:33I don't know. They won't help me. But they kept asking questions about the girls.
32:36You should know. You should know that I wouldn't do that. I know you would never do anything.
32:40You should know it. Then why are they asking me questions?
32:42Do you think I know? I'm waiting for someone to help me. I'm losing everything here. I don't know.
32:49Well, if you haven't done anything wrong, then you should be fine.
32:51I am not going to be fine. Do you understand me?
32:54Ken Easter, his whole defense that his criminal lawyers came up with was he didn't know what he was doing.
33:03He was just, he was just following orders. So they just tried to generate sympathy.
33:08This guy's beaten down. He's getting cheated on by his wife. He's humiliated.
33:13You're going to see how the Easter's went after this poor lady over this incident, even though nothing happened to their child.
33:20We basically had a strong case. The only way they thought that they could defeat the evidence that we had was to claim that Kent Easter did not know what was going on.
33:30He's a lawyer with a lot of experience, blindly followed her lead and called the police.
33:36When we heard that Jill was going to finally show up, we were excited to see what she was going to do.
33:43When Jill Easter took the stand, the first thing she did was brag about how accomplished she was and about her educational pedigree.
33:55She said, I went to the best law school of anyone in this room, which included the judge. That's how she started off her testimony.
34:05It was just crazy times a thousand every single time.
34:10And another time she showed up, there was a bunch of whispering going on.
34:15Jill Easter had already pled guilty to the charges.
34:18They were going to call her, I think, to somehow take the rap for everything.
34:23And then the trial just got weirder.
34:25They were discussing something and Rob turned to me and said,
34:28we're going to not talk to Jill today because she apparently needs an interpreter.
34:35And we were like, okay, for her.
34:38Well, she's deaf.
34:42She showed up, feigned that she was deaf, even though at no point of any interaction with police or anyone did she ever claim to not be able to hear.
34:53I'm not sure why she did it, maybe to buy extra time to come up with answers, maybe to try to generate some sort of sympathy with the jury.
35:00But all that went out the window when she was in the hallway at some point later after her testimony was talking perfectly normally to her husband and the jury saw it all in the hallway.
35:11The man she was having an affair with told us that absolutely she's not deaf.
35:16It was so crazy that the defense ended up not calling her at all because it became so weird and circus-like.
35:24Well, I think the jurors found it offensive.
35:27I mean, in addition to everything else in this case that was offensive, that was just one more log on the fire.
35:32Kit and Jill Easter were charged with felony false imprisonment.
35:39They were charged with two counts of conspiracy and conspiring to have her falsely imprisoned.
35:45It was important for me to have felony charges because when you're a lawyer, I mean, you're supposed to protect people and help people.
35:53Chris Duff, the DA, he always had my back.
35:57They harassed this poor woman for six months, sued her. They knew she had no money.
36:02They knew she couldn't defend herself against a lawsuit against, you know, these two lawyers.
36:06I mean, they harassed her and mentally broke her down.
36:09They should be disbarred. These people should not be allowed to practice law.
36:13He had their number. I felt safe with this man.
36:17Jill Easter served 120 days in jail. Ken Easter was given 180 days.
36:22It's my understanding that the Easter's got divorced shortly after the criminal trial and are still living in Orange County.
36:31I know that Jill Easter's changed her name like three separate times. I don't know what her name is now.
36:37You pled guilty to what?
36:39It's not a drug charge. It's something like restricting the freedom of another.
36:44Meaning that you planted the drugs.
36:47Okay.
36:54Ken Easter hired one of the most high-priced, high-powered criminal defense attorneys in the county.
37:00A lot of good that did him. He ended up losing.
37:03So he tried a different approach in my case, in the civil case.
37:07In my case, he tried to portray himself as,
37:10woe is me. I'm poor. I'm broke. I've already been punished enough.
37:16And he chose to represent himself.
37:19I was being prepped to come face to face with Ken Easter.
37:23He was going to represent himself.
37:25And that was something I was really terrified by.
37:29A person who represents himself has a fool for a client.
37:33Again, Ken Easter was a partner at a major firm.
37:36He probably had a dozen tailored suits at home.
37:39He showed up in our civil case wearing this ratty blue sweater.
37:44He didn't have a belt on. His pants were falling down.
37:47He was dressed like Mr. Rogers.
37:49It was basically his pockets turned out, trying to cry poor.
37:53We've been punished enough, and we're broke.
37:55We don't have any ability to pay. You shouldn't award punitive damages.
37:59And as part of that, at one point, told the jury that Jill Easter was on food stamps.
38:06She was living in a $4 million mansion in Newport Beach at the time.
38:11During my closing argument in this trial, I couldn't help it.
38:15I had to bring it up to the jury. I said, look at him.
38:18He's wearing the same blue sweater every single day, trying to have you believe that he's broke.
38:25Don't you believe it? And the jury didn't.
38:29A warm-hearted PTA mom from Irvine, California, framed by scheming, vindictive parents.
38:36A jury earlier this month awarding her $5.7 million in damages.
38:41I said Kelly's rich.
38:44A judgment is only as good as someone's ability to pay it.
38:50The only source of money that we would have would be Kent and Jill Easter themselves.
38:54And they did their best to squirrel away and hide their assets.
38:59In fact, right after he was arrested, Kent Easter gave his house away, his multi-million dollar Irvine mansion, to his father-in-law.
39:08Fortunately, we were able to go get that house, have it sold, and the proceeds were used to compensate Kelly and her family.
39:16It was nowhere near $5.7 million, unfortunately.
39:20I paid off my attorneys.
39:22I got everyone paid off, which felt really good, because I had a team of people holding me up the whole time.
39:28And they got paid, and that was important to me.
39:31I do think justice was served.
39:35Not only for Kelly and her family, but also punitive damages.
39:39You know, because it's not just about compensating the family.
39:41It's also about punishing Kent Easter and Jill Easter.
39:45So are you sorry for your part in all of this, even though you maintain you didn't know what you were doing?
39:52Are you sorry for what you did that set this all in motion?
39:59There's too many parts to that question that can answer.
40:01One of the things that really has stuck with me about this case and about these two is their just complete and utter lack of remorse.
40:11Even after pleading guilty, there was never any acceptance of responsibility.
40:16There was no apology to Kelly.
40:20Don't you think you'd feel better if you just said, you know what?
40:23I did it. I screwed up. I regret it. I'm sorry.
40:27Wouldn't that feel good just to say that?
40:29Is this a therapy session or a deposition?
40:32It's hard to describe one of the weirdest cases I've ever encountered.
40:36I mean, usually there's a motive. People need money.
40:39Someone gets stabbed or shot in a moment of heat of passion, which is not excusable, but at least understandable.
40:46Here, there's nothing to understand.
40:49And the things that they did in this case just really blew our minds.
40:52He goes and does this thing that's clearly illegal.
40:55I guess I'm wondering about why he would do that.
41:00We had a break in the deposition and I had bagels, I had coffee, and we were just like old chums.
41:05And I asked him. I said, hey, man, off the record, like, dude, why?
41:12There was a moment where he leaned forward. He wanted to unload. He wanted to tell me.
41:17And then he caught himself and he stopped himself and he didn't. And that's honestly, that's a mystery that I don't think will ever be solved is the why.
41:26Why did they continue to take it so far?
41:29I guess it seems extreme.
41:31My guess is that this personality type often got what she wanted.
41:37Yeah. It's very eye-opening.
41:39Are they crazy? Yes. Is Anahita right? Can you defend them? No, you can't.
41:43It's mind-blowing and beyond anyone's capability of ever understanding.
41:48I was vindicated. That's a good feeling, especially against people who think they're better than you or smarter than you.
42:00I mean, do they still think they're smarter than me?
42:03This is Jeopardy!
42:07Here are today's contestants.
42:10A private investigator from Queens, New York, Anna Hendricks.
42:15A management consultant from San Diego, California, Kent Easter.
42:20Kent.
42:21What is ox?
42:22No.
42:45It's almost like the George Santos before George Santos.
43:00She's a monster.
43:02Her whole campaign was to help women in horrible situations.
43:08That's when she started collecting money.
43:10I always thought she was hiding something.
43:12Candace was setting me up for the kill.
43:15This girl robbed me big time.
43:17I was pissed.
43:18Oh, I would like to slap her.
43:20True Crime Story Smug Shot.
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