Felicity Huffman was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for her role in the college admissions bribery scandal.
A federal judge handed down the sentence in a Boston courtroom four months after the actress pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and fraud.
The award-winning Hollywood star was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to pay a fine of $30,000 and perform 250 hours of community service. She must report to prison in six weeks.
“I am deeply sorry to the students, schools, and universities, that are impacted by my actions,” NBC News reported the actress tearfully said as she read a prepared statement. Huffman was the first parent sentenced in the case.
Prosecutors had recommended a month in prison and a $20,000 fine.
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Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, and several of her famous friends recently wrote letters to the court in support of the actress.
Macy praised his wife’s dedication to their family, and revealed that the family is in therapy to deal with the fallout from the scandal.
In another letter, Eva Longoria — Huffman’s co-star on Desperate Housewives — said the actress stood up to another cast member who was “bullying” the much-less experienced Longoria.
“I dreaded the days I had to work with that person because it was pure torture. Until one day, Felicity told the bully ‘enough’ and it all stopped,” Longoria wrote in the letter obtained by NBC News.
Huffman pleaded guilty in May to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud by paying a fixer $15,000 to have someone correct her oldest daughter’s answers on an SAT exam.
Prosecutors said the payment was disguised to look like a charitable tax-deductible donation to a foundation operated by California-based ringleader William Rick Singer — who pleaded guilty earlier this year.
The Emmy-winning actress was accused of arranging to have her daughter diagnosed with a learning disability to allow the girl extra time to take her SAT test.
The 56-year-old actress told the court her daughter “knew absolutely nothing” about the scheme.
Huffman was one of 50 high-profile individuals, including Full House actress Lori Loughlin, charged in a scheme that involved changing test results, hiring proctors to take exams for children and superimposing kids’ faces onto pictures of real student athletes, to guarantee college admission through athletics programs.
Federal officials said parents paid Singer to get their children into elite colleges, including Georgetown University, Stanford University, UCLA, USC, the University of Texas, Wake Forest, and Yale. The amounts parents paid ranged from thousands of dollars to $6.5 million, authorities said.
Singer pleaded guilty to money laundering, racketeering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Federal officials said he accepted $25 million in bribes from parents between 2011 and 2018.
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