US actress Felicity Huffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for her involvement in a college admissions scandal.<\/p>\n
The Desperate Housewives star admitted to paying $15,000 (\u00a311,500) to have her daughter’s exam answers secretly corrected in 2017.<\/p>\n
She must also do 250 hours of community service and pay a $30,000 fine.<\/p>\n
Parents and athletics coaches were among 50 people charged in the scheme, but none of the children were indicted.<\/p>\n
“There are no excuses or justifications for my actions. Period,” Huffman said in a statement after her sentencing. “I would like to apologise again to my daughter, my husband, my family and the educational community for my actions.<\/p>\n
“And I especially want to apologise to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children.”<\/p>\n
Judge Indira Talwani said she believes Huffman has accepted full responsibility for her actions, but “trying to be a good mother does not excuse” what she did.<\/p>\n
She must report to prison in six weeks. Prosecutors had asked for a month in prison and a $20,000 fine.<\/p>\n
The parents charged in the college scam investigation allegedly paid bribes, had exams altered, and even had their children edited into stock photos to fake sporting talents on applications.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say they managed to fraudulently secure spots for the teenagers at elite US universities including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford.<\/p>\n
Huffman pleaded guilty to mail and honest services fraud in May. She is the first parent sentenced in the scandal.<\/p>\n
Her legal team had asked for a year of probation in lieu of jail time, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.<\/p>\n
But prosecutors wrote in a memo last week that “neither probation nor home confinement (in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool) would constitute meaningful punishment or deter others from committing similar crimes”.<\/p>\n
Huffman worked with the scam’s confessed mastermind, William Singer, to falsify a college entrance exam score for her oldest daughter, Sophia Macy.<\/p>\n
Singer arranged for Sophia to take her SAT test in a special location, an exam widely used for college admissions in the US. Her result was a major improvement on her previous score.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Judge Talwani, Huffman wrote: “In my desperation to be a good mother I talked myself into believing that all I was doing was giving my daughter a fair shot.”<\/p>\n
“I see the irony in that statement now because what I have done is the opposite of fair. I have broken the law, deceived the educational community, betrayed my daughter and failed my family.”<\/p>\n
Huffman said in her letter to the judge that her daughter had been unaware of the fraud, and was devastated to learn of it.<\/p>\n
The actress wrote: “When my daughter looked at me and asked me with tears streaming down her face, ‘Why didn’t you believe in me? Why didn’t you think I could do it on my own?’ I had no adequate answer for her.<\/p>\n
“I could only say, ‘I am sorry. I was frightened and I was stupid.’ In my blind panic, I have done the exact thing that I was desperate to avoid.<\/p>\n
“I have compromised my daughter’s future, the wholeness of my family and my own integrity.”<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said Huffman made arrangements to have Singer cheat for her younger daughter as well before deciding against it.<\/p>\n
Huffman’s husband – actor William H Macy – also had contact with Singer, though Mr Macy was spared charges.<\/p>\n
Though Huffman was among the most high-profile figures indicted, she paid among the smallest sums allegedly doled out by the parents charged in the scandal, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Lori Loughlin, another Hollywood actress ensnared in the scandal along with her husband, has pleaded not guilty to paying $500,000 in bribes to have their daughters accepted to the University of Southern California as members of the rowing team.<\/p>\n
Ms Loughlin is next due in court on 2 October.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"