Riley Peru, Staff Writer
Back in 2019, Oscar award nominated actress Felicity Huffman was arrested and sentenced to fourteen days in jail for paying test proctor, Rick Singer, to falsify her daughter’s SAT score. Huffman pleaded guilty to paying the test proctor to change her daughter’s score. In October 2020, she only served eleven of those fourteen days of her sentence but she also had to do 250 hours (about 1 and a half weeks) of community service and had supervised release. The actress has not spoken about the topic since, refusing to take acting roles. It wasn’t until recently that she spoke out in an interview discussing her role in the crime and why she did what she did.
“When he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seemed like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — that that was my only option to give my daughter a future. I know hindsight is 20/20 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So, I did it,” Huffman stated in an interview. Huffman continued further in discussing Singer and their relationship. “I worked with a highly recommended college counselor named Rick Singer. I worked with him for a year and trusted him implicitly; he recommended programs and tutors, and he was the expert. And after a year, he started to say, ‘Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to.’ And so, I believed him.”
Singer, who was a part of an organization dedicated to fabricating test scores, was arrested and sentenced to 42 months (about 3 and a half years) in prison. At the time of Singer’s investigation, police found evidence of hundreds close to a thousand of test scores being falsified. According to PEOPLE magazine, they report Singer has been making “more than $25 million from his clients, while also paying bribes of more than $7 million” as a part of his business. This scheme had been happening for years, and Singer’s arrest marks the end of the organization.
As for her daughter Sophia, her score was terminated and she was found innocent of the crime. She was allowed to take the exam again, her score allowing her enrollment at Carnegie Mellon University where she studies theater. Huffman’s other daughter and husband were also found to not be involved in the crime.
Huffman was noted to have been released for good behavior. She later joined A New Way of Life, an organization dedicated to help women released from prison get back on their feet and restart their lives after lockup. After the 250 hours of community service were completed, Huffman remained at the organization and later became a member of their board. “I want to use my experience and what I’ve gone through and the pain to bring something good,” Huffamn said in an ABC7 interview. She continues to support and advocate the charity. But that’s not all, Huffamn also looks to return to acting. She was anticipated to perform in a spin-off series of “The Good Doctor” entitled “The Good Lawyer”, but ABC decided not to pick up the show.
Leave a Reply