Lori Loughlin, her husband, and fellow actress Felicity Huffman got their court appearances in the college bribery scandal delayed.
Loughlin and fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli cited “scheduling conflicts” as preventing them from attending their court appearances in Boston on March 23, reported the Boston Herald.
They sought a delay until April 15.
The delay was granted but the couple is now slated to appear in court on April 3, according to the Department of Justice.
That means they’ll be in court at the same time as Huffman, who also cited scheduling conflicts in her request for a delay.
The time is listed as 2:30 p.m. in courtroom 24 at the Boston federal courthouse.
All three were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Federal officials said that Loughlin and Giannulli paid $250,000 for each daughter to get into the University of Southern California by being designated recruits for the crew (rowing) team, despite not rowing at a competitive level.
They paid William “Rick” Singer, who ran a nonprofit and pleaded guilty to orchestrating the nationwide scheme.
Huffman, meanwhile, paid Singer $15,000 in exchange for a third-party, an associate of Singer, to proctor her older daughter’s SAT so the daughter could cheat, prosecutors said. The daughter received a score of 1,420, approximately 400 higher than her PSAT, which was taken one year earlier. Huffman also discussed repeating the scheme for her younger daughter.
Huffman, Loughlin, and Giannulli face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Sketch Artist Describes Court Appearances
The courtroom artist who drew Huffman and Loughlin during the actresses’ respective court appearances said they looked “very different.”
Mona Edwards was in the Los Angeles court on March 13 when Loughlin, 54, best known as “Aunt Becky” from “Full House,” appeared after surrendering to police on conspiracy charges. She was also present when Huffman, 56, best known for playing “Lynette Scavo” on “Desperate Housewives,” appeared in court a day earlier on the same charges.
Contrasting what transpired, Edwards said the two court appearances were dramatically different.
“Loughlin had her arms crossed in a fairly deflective and defensive pose, almost the entirety of the hearing. In the sketch, I wanted to show her pose: straight, unflinching, perhaps angry. She certainly looked the part!” Edwards told InStyle magazine. “She was very well put together—hair, makeup—as if she had time to get ready and look great for her ‘appearance.’ Her choice of white turtleneck was perhaps a statement of purity and innocence?”
While Loughlin’s legal team negotiated her surrender for March 23, after she traveled from filming for a television show, Huffman was detained by FBI agents with guns drawn who burst into her house on the morning of March 22.
Edwards, who has a huge portfolio that includes Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, and Kendall Jenner, said that along with Huffman’s weary appearance, the two women had “totally different attitude, expression, and the way that the body was held.”
“She didn’t have the time element Loughlin had,” Edwards told Yahoo of Huffman. “So obviously she didn’t have time to call a makeup artist and say, ‘Hey, can you make me look great for court today.’”
She said Loughlin was defiant while Huffman was sheepish. The latter had her head down most of the time in court, according to the sketch artist.
“I think Huffman was more authentic and genuine,” she added. “I was thinking I made her too stern. But that’s what she looked like. There’s this thin line about whether I want to please the public and draw something [they’d like to see] or draw something warts and all and I choose [the latter].”
Loughlin, she added, had “kind of a defensive deflection like: Don’t touch me. What am I doing here? Where are my people? When am I getting out? It was so defiant.”
“Loughlin came off, and I think it showed in my drawings, a little arrogant. An illustrator can bring that out maybe more than a camera. However, I wasn’t being subjective. I was just drawing what I saw.” She added, “The way people stand, their body language, their attitude—it all plays a part in an illustration.”
