Amid questions about felony, Lee’s Summit School Board candidate says he’s withdrawing
Amid scrutiny of his background, a candidate for Lee’s Summit School Board in the upcoming April election said Saturday he’s suspending his campaign. But his name will still appear on ballots, according to the Jackson County Election Board.
The announcement from the candidate, Christopher Thornton, came days after the Lee’s Summit PTA Council acknowledged questions from reporters about a 2024 felony fraud charge Thornton faced related to his time with a local parent-teacher organization.
That charge was later dismissed after Thornton completed a diversion program in October.
The parent-teacher group provided a police report and documents to The Star showing Thornton made a restitution payment of $750 to the Prairie View Elementary PTA in January 2025 after he was accused of using a bank card for personal purchases.
According to the July 2024 police report, Thornton was accused of using the card to make payments to Progressive Leasing, a lease-to-own group, for a reclining sofa and a Nintendo Switch, and to buy a product kit from Optavia, a wellness company. Police said in the report that investigators attempted to contact Thornton but were unsuccessful in speaking with him.
Jackson County prosecutors filed one count of fraudulent use of a credit/debit device against Thornton, which was later dismissed after he went through New Start, a diversion program “designed for defendants charged with nonviolent offenses who are better served by rehabilitation than incarceration,” said Jazzlyn Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Given Thornton’s lack of prior criminal history, he was accepted into the program, in which defendants complete community service, attend treatment and classes and pay restitution, she said. Thornton met every requirement, including paying restitution, and graduated from the program in October, she said.
“Diversion programs like New Start allow our office to hold people accountable in a meaningful way, while reserving jail space and prosecution resources for cases that truly require them,” she said.
April 7 election
In a phone call with The Star on Tuesday, Thornton claimed he had gotten an “order” to have his name removed from ballots and indicated that he thought he would appear on absentee ballots but not on April 7 Election Day ballots.
However, Sara Zorich, one of the directors with the Jackson County Election Board, told The Star that anything on an absentee ballot would also be on an Election Day ballot, and that elections officials had not heard from Thornton. His name will remain on all ballots, she said.
“If he has withdrawn, we were not made aware, and he would have had to have a court order by Feb. 10 to be withdrawn, and he would have had to have paid for us to reprint ballots,” she said.
Had Thornton gotten a court order ahead of the deadline earlier this month, reprinting ballots would have cost about $6,750, she said.
Thornton said his decision to drop out did not relate to his background but came from his desire to support other like-minded candidates. He pointed to a group of financial issues The Star asked him about — including a recent bankruptcy, a slate of back taxes he owed and an accusation from Kansas officials that he had committed unemployment fraud — and said he thought they made him better qualified for the office.
“In my opinion, that makes me even more qualified for a district that’s going through changes, to really implement the lived experience, knowing that everything isn’t always roses and sunshine, but doing everything you can for not only your kids, but the kids of the community,” he said.
“But ultimately, I made the decision to withdraw explicitly to give the other three candidates that already had a larger base the best opportunity to be elected, so that way we can continue to do better for kids within the district.”
Lee’s Summit candidate forum
Thornton was not among the field of candidates who spoke at a Lee’s Summit PTA Council election forum held on Monday night, and bowed out of the race after the group confirmed the felony charge last week.
The council said it had invited Thornton and all candidates on the ballot to speak in line with national PTA guidance for nonpartisan candidate forums.
“Our role as a nonpartisan organization is not to serve as judge or jury, nor to determine ballot eligibility,” council president Lorenzo Harrison said in a statement ahead of the forum.
“Our responsibility is to provide a fair, structured, and neutral platform for every legally certified candidate whose name appears on the ballot. Voters deserve the opportunity to hear directly from all individuals seeking to serve our district.”
“The PTA does not condone the misuse or theft of funds under any circumstances,” Harrison said. “We hold our leaders and volunteers to the highest standards of financial integrity and accountability. Protecting the trust of families and ensuring responsible stewardship of resources is foundational to our mission.”
Asked about the felony charge on Tuesday, Thornton said he felt “targeted” amid a dispute in PTA leadership, and said the charges resulted from a “saved credit card issue on a shared browser.” He said he eventually paid restitution.
“It’s one of those it is what it is things,” he said. “Quite frankly, I would say that 95% of it stems from disagreements on the PTA board and how it was handled.”
Bankruptcy, back taxes and a fraud allegation
Thornton also filed for bankruptcy in October, roughly two months before the December candidate filing window for the April election. When candidates file to run for office, they must certify under oath that they are not delinquent in paying taxes and have to file affidavits indicating as much to both with the state’s Department of Revenue and with the district they are running in.
A representative for the Department of Revenue did not respond to a request for comment about Thornton’s candidacy Tuesday.
Among other debts, Thornton’s bankruptcy filing indicated that he owed around $28,000 in taxes to the federal government, Missouri, Kansas and Jackson County.
In January, the state of Kansas filed a complaint in bankruptcy court accusing Thornton of committing fraud as the state alleged he improperly received unemployment benefits for a stint from December 2023 into January 2024. The state said Thornton was employed and earning wages he failed to report as he filed weekly claims for benefits.
The state said Thornton was wrongfully paid around $4,700 and was assessed a penalty of around $1,200. With interest, the state said he owed around $7,000 as of a Jan. 14 court filing.
“An investigation has found that you willfully and knowingly failed to report employment and/or correct earnings while receiving unemployment benefits in an effort to receive benefits not otherwise due, which was a first offense of unemployment insurance fraud,” an official with the Kansas Department of Labor wrote to Thornton in a May 2024 letter, which was included in court documents.
On Tuesday, Thornton said he was not familiar with the unemployment issue and said his attorney was handling the matter.
Thornton also claimed he had resolved the back taxes issue.
“There is no back taxes anywhere owed,” he said.
