Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli agree to plea deal in college admissions scandal
Actress Lori Loughlin and designer husband Mossimo Giannulli will each spend time behind bars after agreeing to plead guilty in the case; Molly Line reports.
Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions scandal case that loomed over them for more than a year.
Although the date of their expected guilty plea has not yet been determined, the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday that Loughlin will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to honest services wire and mail fraud.
If the judge accepts the terms of their plea agreement, both will do time in prison. Loughlin would serve two months and pay a $150,000 fine along with two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Giannulli, meanwhile, would serve five months in prison, pay a $250,000 fine with two years of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.
Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli leave the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on Aug. 27, 2019. (Getty)
Now, with the big hurdle seemingly behind the “Full House” alum, many questions remain as to whether Loughlin will be able to bounce back and salvage her career in show business and if the public will be able to see past her transgressions moving forward.
“Hollywood tends to be pretty forgiving if it's a nonviolent crime and also it depends on the times we're living in. We're in a time where there's a lot of cheating and a lot of corruption and things going on that are very telling about people,” KerrPR President Cherie Kerr, who is not involved in the case, told Fox News on Thursday soon after the plea agreements were announced.
The personal and corporate crisis manager continued: “For instance, the fact that [Lori] lied about both daughters' athletic ability – that's a real problem. That's worse than her just sending somebody some money as an influence and to get [her daughters] in and then say, 'Oh well, I didn't really know what I was doing and this guy [William 'Rick' Singer] put himself out to be someone who was just a coordinator to get my kids in school. So when you start lying as she did about her daughters and their background – and they found out they weren't rowers – that's the problem because that's really deceitful.”
Kerr believes that Loughlin “should have walked off the field long ago” as her former co-defendant in the elaborate admissions scheme, actress Felicity Huffman, elected to do early on in the case before prosecutors put the squeeze on the remaining parents. Huffman served 11 of the 14 days handed to her and began completing her court-mandated community service back in November 2019.
Lori Loughlin appears in court in Boston in September 2019 about the college admissions scandal. At right, Felicity Huffman leaves her sentencing in the college admissions scam case, dubbed 'Operation Varsity Blues.' Huffman was sentenced to serve 14 days in federal prison following a plea agreement and has since been released. (Getty)
“She didn't fight it and get off and even if she had, there was a lot of damage done,” Kerr said. “It's generally not just one thing, but I think her career and her image is tainted from here on out because of what happened. If she's not well thought of as a mother, to a lot of people in the public that will be a big black mark against her.”
Kerr said Loughlin should get ahead of the matter in the media, if permitted by the terms of her plea agreement, and should explain her reasoning behind making the large payments and staging the photos of her daughters -- Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Giannulli -- for their admittance into the University of Southern California.
“What happens with the press is that whoever has the most ink or airtime is the one where the public's sway is moved toward that side, but if she's not going to say anything and she's not going to do anything, I think she's going to have a problem,” said Kerr.
“So if she has any kind of defense – if she wants to do a mea culpa or she wants to say this is really what went down and how it went down – we were desperate or whatever – she should be out there talking,” Kerr maintained. “Some people just decide to go away and leave it alone for a while. But I always say, if the story's out there and you made a deal and that's what you did and you have a way to explain that away – then do it.”
“People used to go on with Barbara Walters for a whole hour and explain why they did what they did,” Kerr added.
Prominent San Diego criminal defense attorney David Shapiro, also not attached to the matter, echoed the sentiment of Kerr that Loughlin’s chances of coming away victorious were slim and believes that a portion of the general public will scoff at the two months in federal prison Loughlin may have to serve behind bars if the judge accepts the terms of the plea agreement.
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“Lori Loughlin’s fate was likely sealed, one way or the other, well before this guilty plea,” said Shapiro. “Some in the general public may not be happy with anything short of a lengthy prison commitment. She absolutely appears to have cheated the system, but got caught and now is labeled a felon.”
“Only time shall tell what Loughlin’s legacy will be,” he added. “Many will remember her as ‘Aunt Becky’ from ‘Full House,’ and nothing more. Others will view this [pending] conviction as a black eye she can never recover from. Others will look back and see a mother who was willing to risk it all for the good of her children, albeit via illegal means.”
However, current white-collar criminal defense attorney Michael Zweiback – who is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and prosecutor in the Central District of California and is also not involved in the legal proceedings – takes the opposite view of Kerr, and while he’s sure that "the stain will require a significant amount of time” for the matter to cycle out of the news, Loughlin “will have an opportunity to resume her career at some point.”
“A lot depends upon how she acts from this point forward. Is she showing remorse? Does the narrative change from her being a victim of an overzealous government prosecution to ‘I am sorry for my actions?’" Zweiback explained to Fox News on Thursday. “The judge will look to that when determining whether to accept this agreement and sentence her accordingly. [And] the public will also be watching for this.”
Meanwhile, considering the current happenings in the world and whether the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will hurt or help Loughlin’s ability to gain favor with the public, Kerr said there's a slippery slope to navigate in the fact that people may be so involved in their own life dealings that the outcome of the scandal could be eclipsed.
“Well, that can play out on both sides. They can say, 'Yeah, who cares? We're in a much more serious situation and all she did was send some money and photos and got her kids in the school she wanted them to go to. That pales in comparison to what's happening otherwise,'" Kerr explained. “But then they can also have a lot more time to sit and watch television and look at the news coverage because they're not working. So it can work both ways.”
Kerr also anticipates that there will be a number of factors that will come into play on whether the scandal will define Loughlin and if Hollywood decides they’re willing to take a gamble on the fallen star.
“That's really hard to say because it depends on what happens over the next few years,” said Kerr, who is often called upon by high-power attorneys to assist in image-strategizing for their clients. “And don't forget – and I think this is unfortunate the way it is – but she's an aging actress and her heyday was when she was quite a bit younger. So that's a factor that would have to be considered.”
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Asked if Loughlin’s YouTube star daughter Olivia will be able to land on her feet in the eyes of the public following the scandal? Kerr believes so though the task will take some massaging.
“The public will be swayed by whoever gets the most press and the most positive press or the most credibility,” she explained. “So if she got a bad shake because it was really her mother who persuaded her to do this, people will probably forgive her, but it's going to take some rehabilitation [and] that's going to be doing some acts of charity and stepping up, admitting it and then walking away from it and trying to build something bigger and better.”
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“It usually is a matter of time and it can be months or a couple of years or what have you before somebody starts to emerge more prominently and comes back,” added Kerr. “It depends on who they are and what they've done.”
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