BOSTON — Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday after pleading guilty to participating in a nationwide college admissions scandal. Huffman, 56, admitted to paying $15,000 to help her daughter obtain fake SAT scores for admission to college. The “Desperate Housewives” star was also fined $30,000 and must perform 250 hours of community service.
“I was stupid, and I was so wrong,” Huffman told a judge in federal court in Boston Friday afternoon reading from a two-page prepared statement, clearing her throat and at times choking back tears. “I am deeply ashamed for what I have done. I have inflicted more damage than I could ever have imagined.”
The case is the biggest college bribery scandal in U.S. history, drawing national attention and putting a spotlight on the lengths to which status-seeking parents will go to secure their children admission to elite universities.
Huffman said she was trying to help her daughter, Sophia, now 19, and that her daughter didn’t know about the scheme that involved securing extended time for her daughter to take the SAT and arranging for her daughter to take the exam at a test center in West Hollywood that Rick Singer, her daughter’s tutor “controlled.” Huffman paid for the scheme by making a purported contribution of $15,000 to Singer’s sham charity, Key Worldwide Foundation.
During her apology, Huffman said she remembered driving to the testing center, her daughter in the passenger seat, nervous about the test and asking if they could get ice cream afterward.
“I kept thinking: ‘Turn around, turn around.’ To my eternal shame, I didn’t,” she said breaking down. She said one of the hardest aspects of her decision was facing her child after the scandal broke.
“I am so sorry Sophia,” Huffman said, before addressing the judge again. “I will deserve whatever punishment you give me.”
Judge Indira Talwani said this did not absolve her.
“Trying to be a good mother doesn’t excuse this,” Talwani said. “You knew what you were doing was wrong.”
The judge said that a person in a position of wealth is in a much easier position in this college admissions efforts and that although she would not be sentencing Huffman based on what the greater scandal uncovered, it is with that background that she considered the case.
She said Huffman’s history of having a moral compass impacted the sentencing.
“She gave one of the two smallest bribes, she was not a repeat player, she did not involve her child… but we also know she knew what she was doing was wrong, and she did take many steps to facilitate the scheme,” the judge mused.
Community service was less punishment and more for rehabilitation. But that, she said, should be directed at one-on-one interactions, rather than trading on her fame for an organization. As for punishment, she said.
“The outrage is a system that is already so distorted by money and privilege in the first place. With some children having individual tutoring and counseling… food and a roof over your head… to help children,” she said. “In that context where you took the step of obtaining one more advantage to put your child ahead of others.”
That’s why general deterrence matters, she said. She said she agreed that incarceration was necessary but not the 30 days the prosecutors had recommended. She sentenced Huffman to 14 days of prison, a year of probation after that and 250 hours of community service to be served to help individuals. She will also pay a fine of $30,000, due within 14 days of today.
“Without this sentence I think you would be looking at a future with the community around you asking why you got away with this,” Talwani said.
Huffman’s attorney asked the judge to recommend she go to a prison near her home in California, the judge agreed, but said she could make no guarantee.
Huffman will self report to prison on October 25. Huffman stood to hear the sentencing, and then sat back down after. Someone came up to her and held her shoulders. Huffman walked out of court hand in hand with her husband, Actor William Macy but neither she nor her attorneys made comment to reporters.
Leading up to the sentencing:
Prosecutors asked that Huffman spend a month behind bars. Her attorneys recommend community service.
The prosecution, which had earlier recommended longer jail time, made the case for incarceration:
“Perched at the apex of wealth, privilege and, in some instances, fame, these defendants were not content with the distinct advantages they already enjoyed in the admissions process: access to the best private schools and tutors; unlimited resources to pursue sports and extracurricular activities; and legacy standing, in several cases, as alumni of the universities they defrauded,” they wrote in a sentencing document.
“Instead of relying on merit, they opted to cheat, by buying their children illegal advantages: fake standardized test scores and guaranteed admission, via fraud, to the schools of their choice. Betraying an astonishing degree of self-entitlement and moral insularity, they corrupted a system that millions of Americans depend on every year, merely so their children could attend one college instead of another.
Some period of incarceration is the only meaningful sanction for these crimes”
In response, one of Huffman’s attorneys, Martin Murphy of the Boston-based Foley Hoag law firm said that the cases prosecutors cited support their recommendation to give her jail time, included very different circumstances than her transgressions.
“Only the ringleader was sent to prison at sentencing,” Murphy pointed out in those cases. That would be the equivalent of Rick Singer, who admitted to orchestrating the admissions scam.
Murphy also argued Huffman’s conduct was “completely out of character” and that she was one of the least culpable of the dozens involved.
Huffman’s attorney had recommended the judge sentence the Emmy Award-winning actress to one year of probation, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.
She pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and mail fraud. She said she took full responsibility for her actions and wanted to “apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.”
Her previous admission and apologies were mentioned several times during sentencing.
Before her arrest, Huffman offered parenting advice on a website she put together. She worked with Singer to fabricate reasons why her daughter needed to take the SAT at Dvorskiy’s test center instead of at her high school, where it would have been supervised by a legitimate proctor. This all happened nearly a year after Singer, who was recommended as a tutor to Huffman by a friend, worked with her daughter, according to court records.
After getting the fake score, Huffman and Singer talked about doing the same things with Huffman’s younger daughter, but ended up deciding against it.
The conspiracy, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” by law enforcement, involved bribing SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a test taker to secretly take college entrance exams in place of students, or to correct the students’ answers after they had taken the exam and bribing university athletic coaches and administrators to facilitate the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits.
The cheating scam involved dozens of wealthy, prominent parents and athletic coaches at some of the nation’s most selective, elite universities across the country, including Yale and Georgetown. Actress Lori Loughlin, of “Full House” fame, was also charged.
Former Stanford University sailing coach John Vandemoer was the first person associated with the case to be sentenced. He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced in June to one day of prison for his role. That day was deemed already served.
The Huffman sentence will now set the tone for the rest of those charged.
College admissions bribery scandal
Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).