LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Felicity Huffman was released from prison on Friday morning after serving 11 days of her two-week sentence for cheating on her daughter's SAT test.
The actor began her 14-day sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, on October 15, after pleading guilty to one count of fraud in the nationwide college admissions scandal.
Huffman was scheduled for release on Sunday, but prison policy allows inmates with weekend release dates to be sent home on Friday, an FCI Dublin spokesperson said.
Judge Indira Talwani also ordered Huffman to pay a $30,000 fine, perform 250 hours of community service and serve a year of supervised release.
Huffman admitted to giving $15,000 to consultant Rick Singer to boost her daughter's SAT score. She delivered a tearful apology in court, saying she was in a state of panic that her daughter would not be admitted to college to study acting.
"Trying to be a good mother doesn't excuse this," Talwani told Huffman at her September 13 sentencing. "The outrage in this case is a system that is already so distorted by money and privilege in the first place. ... You took the step of having one more advantage to put your child ahead."
Huffman was the first parent to be sentenced in the sprawling federal investigations.
Since then, other parents have been given sentences ranging from probation to five months in prison.
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have continued to fight allegations that they paid Singer $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California using phony athletic credentials. Loughlin and Giannulli were indicted on Tuesday, and now each face three charges, including money laundering and federal programmes bribery.
