Felicity Huffman, the American actress, has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for paying for someone to cheat on her daughter’s university entrance exam.
Huffman, 56, is thehighest profile figure in an extensive bribery and cheating scandal which has ensnared 34 wealthy parents who were accused of breaking the law to get their children into prestigious institutions. She became the first to be sentenced in the case on Friday.
Huffman told Judge Indira Talwani she had “betrayed” her daughters and her actor husband, William H Macy as she was handed the jail term, along with a $ 30, 000 (£ 24), 000) fine, 250 hours of community service and a year of supervised release.
In a statement after her sentencing, she said she accepted the outcome “without reservation”.
Huffman, who appeared in the US television series “Desperate Housewives”, admitted in May to paying $ 15, 000 ( £ 12, 000) to have an invigilator secretly correct her eldest daughter’s answers on the exam.
Officials said her daughter’s result was 400 points higher than an earlier practice test.
Before her sentencing, she tearfully described her daughter asking why Huffman didn’t trust her.
“I can only say I am so sorry, Sophia,” she said. “I was frightened. I was stupid, and I was so wrong. I am deeply ashamed of what I have done. I have inflicted more damage than I could ever imagine. I now see all the things that led me down this road, but ultimately none of the reasons matter because at the end of the day I had a choice. I could have said no. “
Some 51 people have been charged in the scheme, the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the US Justice Department. The scheme saw parents hand over a total of $ 25 million, over seven years, to get their children into universities including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.
Strategies included paying invigilators to fix answers, and allowing impostors to sit the exams. Sports coaches at universities were also bribed to get youngsters with little talent accepted as recruits for teams.
Prosecutors had previously pushed for between four and 10 months for Huffman, with assistant US attorney Eric Rosen arguing on Friday that: “Parenthood is terrifying, exhausting and stressful, but that’s what every parent goes through … What parenthood does not do, it does not make you a felon, it does not make you cheat, in fact it makes you want to serve as a positive role model for your children. “
Huffman’s lawyer Martin Murphy argued that her crimes were less serious than those of her co-defendants, noting that she paid a low amount and that, unlike others, she did not enlist her daughter in the scheme.
Her lawyers also argued that Huffman was only a “customer” in a broader scheme orchestrated by others. In past cases involving cheating or academic fraud, they said, only the ringleaders went to prison.
The scandal has embroiled several of America’s most elite universities and reinforced perceptions that the college admissions process favors the wealthy.
Huffman’s case is seen as an indicator of how the cases against other defendants will proceed, with nearly a dozen other parents due to be sentenced in over the next two months. Fifteen parents have pleaded guilty, while 19 are fighting the charges.
Lori Loughlin, another US television actress, and Mossimo Giannulli, her fashion designer husband, have also been charged in the scandal but pleaded not guilty to paying $ 500, 000 in bribes.
They are accused of paying the money to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as rowing recruits, even though neither of them were rowers.
Former Stanford University sailing coach John Vandemoer is the only other person sentenced so far and received a day in prison. He admitted helping students get into Stanford as recruited athletes in exchange for $ 270, 000 for his sailing program.
Huffman has said her daughter was unaware of the arrangement. She said she turned to the scheme after her daughter’s dreams of going to college and pursuing an acting career were jeopardized by a low maths score.
In a letter this month asking for leniency, Huffman said she carries “a deep and abiding shame” and recognises that she broke the law and betrayed her family.
“I honestly didn’t and don’t care about my daughter going to a prestigious college,” Huffman wrote. “I just wanted to give her a shot at being considered for a program where her acting talent would be the deciding factor.”
Prosecutors countered that Huffman was driven by “a sense of entitlement, or at least moral cluelessness, facilitated by wealth and insularity.”
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