Paul Marotta/Getty Images(BOSTON) — Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for federal crimes stemming from the massive “Varsity Blues” college entrance scam.
In addition, Huffman will have to pay a $30,000 fine and complete 200 hours of community service.
Huffman learned her fate Friday during an appearance in U.S. District Court in Boston before Judge Indira Talwani, to whom she had pleaded for leniency.
Earlier this month, Huffman’s lawyers asked Talwani to not send the Oscar-nominated actress to prison, writing that “nothing about her history and characteristics require a prison sentence.”
Instead, they requested a one-year probation term, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.
“She is remorseful — indeed, deeply ashamed — about what she did,” Huffman’s lawyers stated in court documents.
However, in court documents filed last week, federal prosecutors demanded that Huffman serve prison time, arguing that “neither probation nor home confinement (in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool) would constitute meaningful punishment or deter others from committing similar crimes.”
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Huffman to one month of incarceration, followed by 12 months of supervised release and a fine of $20,000.
On March 13, a federal indictment was unsealed, charging Huffman and more than 30 other wealthy parents, in the largest college cheating scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment alleges the parents paid bribes to William “Rick” Singer, a college-entrance tutor guru whom prosecutors identified as the ringleader of the nationwide scam, to get their children into elite colleges.
Huffman pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of conspiring to commit mail fraud and honest service mail fraud and admitted that she paid Singer $15,000 to falsify her daughter Sophia’s SAT score.
In a statement, Huffman said, “I accept the court’s decision today without reservation. I have always been prepared to accept whatever punishment Judge Talwani imposed. 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.”
She added, “I have learned a lot over the last six months about my flaws as a person. My goal now is to serve the sentence that the court has given me….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.”
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