Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for her role in the college-admissions cheating scheme, sending a strong signal that more of the wealthy parents in the sprawling scandal could expect to serve time.
The Wall Street Journal reports the actress was the first parent to be sentenced, and the result is a middle ground between prosecutors’ recommendation of one month in prison and her attorneys’ request for one year of probation, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.
Prosecutors had argued anything less than incarceration for her and the 10 other parents slated for sentencing in coming weeks would be a “penological joke.”
Huffman pleaded guilty in May to a fraud-related conspiracy charge, admitting to paying college counselor William “Rick” Singer $15,000 so he could arrange for a test proctor in his employ to fraudulently inflate her older daughter’s SAT score in 2017. Ms. Huffman almost repeated the scheme with her younger daughter, but ultimately didn’t pursue the plan, according to court documents.
She will report to prison on Oct. 25.
Though she paid the least of any parent, Huffman, the “Desperate Housewives” and “American Crime” star, has become a key public face of the $25 million scam, with authorities saying the mothers and fathers represented a “catalog of wealth and privilege.”
Mr. Singer pleaded guilty to four felonies: racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruction of justice.
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