After months of waiting and speculation, actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in prison for her involvement in the college admissions scandal. Earlier this week, federal prosecutors recommended that Huffman face a month in prison and pay a $20,000 fine, calling her actions “deliberate and manifestly criminal.” But Huffman’s gamble in submitting a guilty plea this April to charges of mail fraud and honest services fraud seems to have paid off. Huffman’s sentence (the jail time, anyway) is lighter than the prosecutors’ recommendation.
In addition to her two-week prison sentence, which CNN reports will begin on October 25, Huffman is required to pay a $30,000 fine, and complete 250 hours of community service and a one-year supervised release. In response to the prosecutors’ recommendation earlier this week, Huffman had asked the judge instead for a year of probation and community service. She included letters vouching for this alternative written by friends and family in her response, including testimonials from her friend and former co-star Eva Longoria and her husband, William H. Macy, as E! News reports.
Following her sentencing, Huffman has released the following statement to the press: “I broke the law. I have admitted that and I pleaded guilty to this crime. There are no excuses or justifications for my actions. Period,” Huffman said in the statement. “I would like to apologize again to my daughter, my husband, my family and the educational community for my actions. And I especially want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children.”
“I can promise you that in the months and years to come that I will try and live a more honest life, serve as a better role model for my daughters and family and continue to contribute my time and energies wherever I am needed,” Huffman’s statement continued. “My hope now is that my family, my friends and my community will forgive me for my actions.”
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Earlier this week, Huffman told a judge that she carried out the plan because she thought by doing so, she would be giving her daughter a “fair shot” at getting into college, as Variety reports. The case is part of a larger federal probe into corruption in college admissions. Fellow star Lori Loughlin — who continues to maintain her innocence — has not yet received a sentencing date. But Huffman getting jail time after submitting a guilty plea (and having paid far less in bribes than Loughlin did) bodes poorly for the Fuller House star.
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