Felicity Huffman Gets 14 Days in Prison in College Scandal (1)

Felicity Huffman got two weeks in prison for rigging her daughter’s SAT scores in the U.S. college admissions scandal, the first parent to be sentenced in the sprawling case that sparked a nationwide debate over privilege and class.

“You take your sentence,” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani told a tearful Huffman in federal court in Boston on Sept. 13. “You move forward and you can rebuild your life after this.”

The prison term for the 56-year-old star of “Desperate Housewives” and “Transamerica” may send a chill through the 14 other parents who admitted wrongdoing early in the process, pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud as part of a deal with prosecutors to win leniency. For the 19 who spurned such deals and were indicted on charges including money laundering, Huffman’s sentence could be read as a signal to fight on -- or an enticement to change their plea in hopes of a shorter term than they’d get if defeated at trial.

“The outrage is a system that is already so distorted by money and privilege in the first place,” Talwani said.

Talwani also ordered Huffman to pay a $30,000 fine, serve a year’s probation and perform 250 hours of community service. Huffman must report to prison on Oct. 25.

Felicity Huffman, center, arrives at federal court with her husband actor William H. Macy in Boston on Sept. 13.

“I am deeply sorry to the students, parents, and colleges and universities who have been impacted by my actions,” Huffman told the judge before her sentence was pronounced. “I am sorry to my daughter Sophia and my daughter Georgia, and I’m sorry to my husband. I have betrayed them all.”

Huffman admitted in May to paying $15,000 to college counselor Rick Singer, the scheme’s mastermind, to change the answers on her older daughter Sophia’s SAT, producing a surge of some 400 points over the preliminary SAT Sophia took on her own a year earlier. Huffman, one of the first parents to acknowledge her crime, had pleaded with Talwani in court papers to be spared prison and given a year of probation plus community service instead.

Huffman leaves court with husband William H. Macy in Boston, on Sept. 13.

Photographer: Kate Flock/Bloomberg

Prosecutors argued that Huffman must do a month behind bars to send a message that wealthy parents can’t buy their children’s way into college. In his sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen called her a “sophisticated businesswoman” and not “somehow less guilty” than the crime she committed.

The case, which rocked academia -- and no small number of nervous parents across America who wondered if they’d also crossed the line -- involves a total of 51 defendants, including the 34 parents and a smattering of test-center personnel, college athletic coaches and Singer’s staff. The 19 parents who pleaded not guilty included “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, who has shared tabloid headlines with Huffman since the charges were unveiled in March. The money-laundering charge in their indictment is for sums paid to a charity the U.S. says Singer used to process bribes.

Some of the parents’ payments went to boost their kids’ test scores, while other payoffs were for a handful of corrupt coaches at elite universities, the government says, from Stanford and the University of Southern California to Georgetown and Yale. The coaches put the kids on recruiting lists, assuring them of admission whatever their test scores -- or athletic prowess. None of the colleges or students were charged.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Huffman faced from zero to six months in prison. On Sept. 13, just before sentencing her, the judge ruled that there are no victims in the case and that no one suffered financial harm, rejecting the government’s argument that the sentences should be based on the sums the parents paid. The ruling will benefit other parents in the case by making it less likely they’ll get a prison term or by reducing their time behind bars.

Some 30 people wrote the judge seeking leniency for Huffman, including her famous husband, the actor William H. Macy.

“She hurt her daughters,” Macy wrote. “It was the one thing she swore never to do, and she did it. ... It’s a pain I don’t think she will ever escape.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Janelle Lawrence in Boston at jlawrence62@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net
Peter Jeffrey

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