IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Prosecutors call for Felicity Huffman to spend 1 month in jail

They argued to the judge that confinement "in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool" wouldn't be fair punishment.
/ Source: TODAY

Federal prosecutors say actress Felicity Huffman should serve one month in jail and pay a $20,000 fine for her role in a college admissions scandal that has put Hollywood privilege in the spotlight, according to a filing on Friday.

Prosecutors wrote that her conduct was "deliberate and manifestly criminal," and recommended that she have a year of supervised release after the jail time.

In May, the "Desperate Housewives" star pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud after admitting in a statement that she paid at least $15,000 to arrange for someone to alter answers on her daughter's SAT.

Prosecutors argued to the judge that probation wouldn't suffice as punishment.

"In the context of this case, 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," they said, adding that Huffman's "efforts weren't driven by need or desperation, but by a sense of entitlement, or at least moral cluelessness, facilitated by wealth and insularity."

They also stated that "millions of parents send their kids to college every year" and "don't buy fake SAT scores and joke about it," referring to an email Huffman wrote in 2017.

However, Huffman's attorneys are requesting that she instead be sentenced to a year of probation, 250 hours of community service and the $20,000 fine.

"Ms. Huffman is deeply remorseful for her crime," her attorneys wrote in the memorandum. "She recognizes that she deserves to be punished for what she did."

The memorandum also includes letters of support from actress and former co-star Eva Longoria and Huffman's husband, William H. Macy, as well as her own written statement.

"In my desperation to be a good mother I talked myself into believing that all I was doing was giving my daughter a fair shot," she wrote in the letter. "I see the irony in that statement now because what I have done is the opposite of fair."

Huffman isn't the only A-lister to be caught up in the scandal.

Lori Loughlin and her husband have pleaded not guilty to charges related to the scheme. They've been accused of paying $500,000 to help their two daughters get admitted into the University of Southern California.