Felicity Huffman has pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to get her daughter’s SAT scores boosted and apologized for her role in the college admissions scandal. In exchange for the plea deal, prosecutors want her to serve one month in prison and pay a $20,000 fine.
Huffman’s legal team filed a 161-page legal memo asking the judge to give her a year probation and 250 hours of community service. Included in the memo is a personal picture of Huffman, including her life at home with daughters Sophia Macy and Georgia Macy, and the "utter shame" she feels at her participation in the scheme.
“I find Motherhood bewildering,” she admitted in her letter.
“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. My own fears and lack of confidence, combined with a daughter who has learning disabilities often made me insecure and feel highly anxious from the beginning.”
She also shared her daughter Sophia’s horror at her behavior: "When my daughter looked at me and asked me with tears streaming down her face, 'Why didn't you believe in me? Why didn't you think I could do it on my own?' I had no adequate answer for her. I could only saw, 'I am sorry. I was frightened and I was stupid.' In my blind panic, I have done the exact thing that I was desperate to avoid. I have compromised my daughter's future, the wholeness of my family and my own integrity."
Her husband,William H. Macy and co-star Eva Longoria also testified to Huffman’s character.
“Motherhood has, from the very beginning, frightened Felicity and she has not carried being a mom easily. She’s struggled to find a balance between what the experts say, and her common sense,” Huffman said, adding that the scandal has taken a toll on their daughters, who are now seeing a “wonderful family therapist.”
“To be sure Felicity’s relationship with her daughters exploded . . . rebuilding that relationship will be a long process,” he wrote, saying Sophia still has “nightmares” of “FBI agents waking her that morning with guns drawn.”
Huffman’s sentencing is scheduled for September 13th.
Oh... and there's a film coming out about the scandal. Here's the preview.