Ohio mom invoked in Felicity Huffman’s case says she can’t ‘judge’ if sentencing is fair
The Ohio mom who spent time in jail for falsifying her kid’s school district — and was invoked by prosecutors as a reason actress Felicity Huffman should also do time for her involvement in the college admissions scandal — said she can’t “judge” whether the actress’s sentence is fair.
Kelley Williams-Bolar, of Akron, used her father’s home address in 2009 to enable her two daughters to go to school in the better-performing Copley-Fairlawn district, local station WKYC 3 reported.
“I tore two towns,” Williams-Bolar told the station. “At that time, it was serious. You had two towns that they were looking at the test scores for, one town versus another town, and it just made a big riff in the community.”
She was found guilty of felony records tampering in 2011 — which Ohio’s then-governor eventually reduced to a misdemeanor. She spent nine days behind bars.
During Huffman’s sentencing, the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen, used Williams-Bolar’s case as an example, NBC reported.
“If a poor single mom from Akron who is actually trying to provide a better education for her kids should go to jail, there is no reason that a wealthy mother with the resources should not also go to jail,” Rosen told US District Judge Indira Talwani.
Huffman, 56, was sentenced to two weeks behind bars Friday for bribing admitted college fixer William “Rick” Singer with $15,000 to boost her daughter Sophia’s SAT scores. She must also pay a $30,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service.
Williams-Bolar wouldn’t give an opinion on Huffman’s sentence when questioned by WKYC.
“Her 14 days being fair, I cannot be the judge of that and I wouldn’t judge her for that,” she said.
The Golden Globe-winning actress was among dozens of high-profile parents ensnared in the bribery scandal that exploded earlier this year.
“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were also charged.
They have pleaded not guilty to money laundering and conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud after allegedly paying $500,000 to Singer to falsely submit their daughters, Olivia Jade, now 19, and Isabella, 20, as rowing recruits to the University of Southern California.
The couple faces up to 40 years behind bars if convicted.