Huffman sentenced to 14 days in college scam

A federal judge in Boston on Friday gave Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman a $30,000 fine, 250 hours of community service, and a year of supervised release in addition to 14 days behind bars. Huffman pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and fraud for paying an admissions consultant $15,000 to have a proctor alter her daughter’s SAT answers in 2017. Of the 34 people charged in the nationwide college admissions scandal, Huffman was the first to be sentenced.

Too much or too little? Prosecutors wanted her to spend a month in prison and pay a $20,000 fine. Her lawyers argued for no prison time at all, asking for one year of probation plus the prosecutor’s recommended fine. A federal judge decided earlier Friday that the size of bribes would not influence how severely the parents were punished.

Dig deeper: Read Kiley Crossland’s report in Schooled on the scope of the scam and how lawmakers are trying to keep it from happening again.