Felicity Huffman leaves prison after completing sentence for college admissions scandal
Felicity Huffman has completed her prison sentence, Yahoo Entertainment can confirm.
The Desperate Housewives star — aka prisoner number 77806-112 — left the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., on Friday after serving 11 days for her role in the college admissions scandal. She was released two days early, but that is typical. If an inmates’s release date falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the Bureau of Prisons sometimes opts to release them the last preceding weekday.
A rep for Huffman has not issued a statement about her release.
In May, the Emmy-winning actress pleaded guilty to paying admissions consultant Rick Singer $15,000 to have a test proctor boost her daughter Sophia’s SAT score. In September, Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison, plus a $30,000 fine, one year of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.
While she was in prison — a low-security facility outside of San Francisco, about five hours north of the L.A. home she shares with William H. Macy and their two daughters — prosecutors told the court that Huffman had paid the $30,000 fine “in full.”
In a statement after her sentencing, Huffman said she accepted the punishment “without reservation,” adding, “my goal now is to serve the sentence that the court has given me.” She also said she hoped that her family, friends and community would “forgive me for my actions.”
Felicity Huffman's official statement after being sentenced to 14 days in prison for the college admissions scheme. @YahooEnt pic.twitter.com/IyXFR3opAV
— Suzy Byrne (@SuzyByrne) September 13, 2019
Huffman’s daughter Sophia — who was unaware her mom paid to change her test score, prosecutors said — is taking a gap year after graduating high school last spring amid the scandal. Macy said in a letter to Judge Indira Talwani that the now 19-year-old’s unnamed dream college rescinded its invitation to audition for its theater program, after she had traveled to the school, in the wake of Huffman’s arrest.
The couple’s younger daughter, Georgia, 17, will graduate from high school next spring. Prosecutors said Huffman considered running the same scheme to improve her SAT test scores as well but later changed her mind.
Huffman was among the first and the most well-known person to be sentenced in the scandal, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues by federal prosecutors. More than 50 people — parents, coaches, test proctors and admissions counselors — have faced charges for the scheme which involved test scores being changed and bribes paid to guarantee college admission to children of the wealthy.
Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were also arrested, for allegedly paying $500,000 to get their daughters, Bella Giannulli and Olivia Jade, into the University of Southern California. They pleaded not guilty and are expected to go to trial, accumulating two additional charges along the way.
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