Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence actress Felicity Huffman to a month behind bars for her role in a college admissions bribery scheme, the Washington Post reports. Earlier, prosecutors had calculated that sentencing guidelines called for four to 10 months of incarceration. Huffman pleaded guilty in May to fraud charges, admitting she paid $15,000 to have a test proctor correct her daughter’s answers on an SAT college admission exam in an effort to boost her score. Huffman was one of 34 parents charged in a case that prompted outrage over the idea that wealthy people were seeking to buy access to elite colleges for their children.
Fifty-one people were charged in the scheme, which included cheating on standardized tests and faking student profiles as recruited athletes, hoping to enhance prospects of being accepted at top schools. Dubbed by prosecutors as “Varsity Blues,” the scandal was orchestrated by an admissions consultant. In Boston federal court on Friday, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling’s office urged a judge to sentence Huffman to one month of incarceration, 12 months of supervised release and a $20,000 fine. “Her efforts weren’t driven by need or desperation, but by a sense of entitlement, or at least moral cluelessness, facilitated by wealth and insularity,” prosecutors wrote. “Millions of parents send their kids to college every year. All of them care as much as she does about their children’s fortunes. But they don’t buy fake SAT scores and joke about it.” In court documents, Huffman pleaded for leniency, as did her husband, actor William Macy. Her attorneys asked for a sentence of probation and community service, citing her remorse and her explanation that she didn’t care about her daughter going to an elite school.