Tearful Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have been sentenced to prison time over college admissions scandal after paying $500,000 to get their daughters Isabella and Olivia Jade into USC.
For participating in the bribery scheme, Loughlin has been sentenced to two months in prison whereas her husband has been sentenced to five months in prison.
Both Loughlin and Giannulli have been ordered to surrender to prison within 90 days following the hearing that took place via Zoom.
While listening to Judge Nathaniel Gorton, the ‘Full House’ actress broke into tears and told the virtual courtroom that she was sorry while acknowledging she had made an “awful decision.”
“Thank you for allowing me to express how sorry I am.point 351 |
I made an awful decision.point 21 | I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage… and in doing so I ignored intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass,” Loughlin said during the hearing that took place just hours after her husband’s hearing.point 235 | 1
“It only undermined and diminished my daughters’ abilities and accomplishments. I now understand my decision helped exacerbate existing inequalities generally… that realization weighs heavily on me.
“While I wish I could go back and do things differently, I can only take responsibility and move forward. I have great faith in God and believe in redemption and will do everything in my power to redeem myself.”
Concluding her emotional speech, the 56-year-old actress said:
“Your honor, I am truly, profoundly and deeply sorry. I am ready to face the consequences and make amends.”
Responding to the actress was Judge Gorton who accepted Loughlin’s apology as sincere but insisted he was still “dumbfounded” by the felony.
“I believe that you are remorseful and that your statement is sincerely made and that is very important. That is the first part towards the redemption you are seeking- to acknowledge the damage and harm you’ve done,” the judge said.
“You are the eighth person that I have had to sentence in this college bribery scandal. Each time I am more dumbfounded than the time before.
“Here you are an admired, successful, professional actor with a long-lasting marriage, two apparently healthy, resilient children, more money than you could possibly need, a beautiful home in sunny, southern California. A fairy tale life.
“Yet you stand before me a convicted felon. And for what? For the inexplicable desire to grab even more.”
Loughlin and her husband decided to accept their plea deals months ago after denying their role in the bribery scandal for several months.
Besides serving prison time, the couple is also required to pay a $150,000 fine each and undergo 100 community service hours each.
Replaced!