‘Varsity Blues’ jurors say they methodically weighed evidence
One of the jurors who convicted two parents earlier this month in the Varsity Blues college admissions trial in federal court in Boston said the jury seemed to feel both men were guilty from the very start of deliberations.
“There was a general sentiment at the outset that seemed to lean toward a guilty verdict as we discussed the charges,” Christopher Bobek, 38, of Somerville said.
However, the jury did not take a straw poll as they began deliberating whether Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and John Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive, were guilty in a case that exposed a scheme to get wealthy parents’ children into Harvard, Stanford and other presti
gious universities by paying a consultant bribes to falsely portray them as star athletes.
“We wanted to make sure when we walked out of there, we got it right,” Bobek said. “Up until verdicts were reached, these men were innocent.” For nearly 11 hours, the jury went through the evidence for each charge before convicting both men of fraud and bribery conspiracy charges, and Wilson of additional charges of bribery, wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
The false tax return in which Wilson claimed as a “business expense” a bribe to get his son into the University of Southern California as a purported water polo athlete was “the one, single piece that did it for me,” Bobek said. “You are lying. You are breaking the rules that everyone else is adhering to.”
“I believe the defendants knew what they were doing,” he added. “You can’t rob a toy store because you want a toy for your kid … But I do feel terribly for the kids involved because they didn’t know the deception going on to get them into college. Now, they have to live with this. I could see how that could weigh on a kid.”
A 50-year-old Somerville woman who also served on the jury said, “When we went through each charge, we wanted to make sure we backed it up with facts … For me, there were no questions there was fraud and bribes … But it’s hard to find another human guilty.”
Colleges should have safeguards to prevent such fraud from happening, she said.
Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, was charged with paying $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn’t even make it onto her high school’s varsity team. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, was accused of paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters’ ways into Harvard and Stanford.
They are to be sentenced in February.