A campaign consultant for a 2022 Polk County School Board race has been sentenced to 11 months of probation for sending false texts that claimed an incumbent School Board member and her husband were under criminal investigation.
James Earl Dunn Jr. was sentenced Thursday in Bartow after pleading guilty to seven counts of violating election laws regarding text-message disclosures. He received 11 months of probation for each count, though the sentences will run concurrently, according to a spokeswoman for the Polk County Clerk of Courts.
As part of the conditions for probation, the judge ordered that Dunn may reside in Texas. The charges against Dunn were first-degree misdemeanors with a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
Dunn, a Texas resident, was the campaign consultant for Jill Sessions, an opponent of Polk County School Board member Lisa Miller, in the 2022 election. He was charged after an investigation into anonymous text messages sent about Miller during that campaign.
Polk County voters received text messages in June 2022 falsely alleging that Miller and her husband, Bob Miller, were under criminal investigation, The Ledger previously reported. Miller was involved in a three-way campaign for the School Board’s District 7 seat with Sessions and Dell Quary.