College admission scandal: American actress sent to jail
BOSTON: Felicity Huffman got two weeks in jail for rigging her daughter’s entrance-exam scores in the US college admissions scandal, the first parent to be sentenced in the sprawling case that sparked a nationwide debate over class and privilege.
“You take your sentence,” US District Judge Indira Talwani told a tearful Huffman in federal court in Boston on Friday. “You move forward. And you can rebuild your life after this.”
The punishment of the Desperate Housewives star, who paid $15,000 for a 400-point boost over the preliminary SAT her daughter took on her own a year earlier, may send a chill through the 14 other parents who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud.
Their pleas are part of a deal with prosecutors to win leniency, but some of them paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lock in admission to elite schools for their kids -- and may now be wondering what their sentences will look like. For the 19 who spurned such deals and were indicted on charges including money laundering, Huffman’s sentence may be harder to read. It could be a signal to fight on, given the more serious charges they face, or a cue to change their plea in hopes of a shorter term than they’d get if they lost at trial. Pronouncing Huffman’s sentence, which includes a $30,000 fine, a year of probation and 250 hours of community service, Talwani said a prison term was necessary because Huffman took “that next step” beyond the privilege she already enjoyed. “The outrage is a system that is already so distorted by money and privilege in the first place,” the judge said.
After her sentence was read, Huffman, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee, was permitted to sit down, and took a long drink of water. Her husband, the actor William H Macy who wasn’t accused in the case, walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. He was among some 30 people who wrote to the judge seeking leniency for Huffman.