Lori Loughlin’s ‘unbelievable arrogance’: Experts mull huge ‘blow’ to star’s defense

Perhaps it was some consolation for Lori Loughlin to receive a Mother’s Day tribute from her daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli. In an Instagram post, Olivia Jade shared to her 1.3 million followers, the aspiring social media influencer said she was proud to call the former “Full House” actress her mom.

Two days earlier, Loughlin probably wasn’t feeling too celebratory. She, her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and 12 other parents suffered what legal experts call “a big blow” and “a huge setback” in their legal efforts to fight charges in the college admissions scandal.

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happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there. Thank you God for mine!!!! You are my best friend and have held my hand every day for 20 years making it look like motherhood is an easy job. You are one of a kind. I love you so so so much & cannot wait to give you all the love in the world today & forever. Thank you for being you. You are the most special person to me . I am so blessed to be your daughter and so proud to call you mom. I LOVE YOU

A post shared by olivia jade (@oliviajade) on May 10, 2020 at 8:10am PDT

The federal court judge overseeing the parents upcoming trials in Boston in October denied motions by Loughlin, Giannulli and the other parents to have the bribery, fraud and other charges against them dismissed.

“The ruling is a huge setback for Loughlin’s defense team, and eliminates their only chance of getting the case dismissed before trial,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is in private practice in Los Angeles at West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Lori better be prepared to face a jury of her peers in October, because that is her only chance of beating these charges.”

Loughlin and her fashion designer husband each face up to 50 years in prison if convicted. The ruling by Judge Nathanial Gorton left the actress feeling “nervous,” as if she’s still living in “a bad dream she can’t wake up from,” a source told Entertainment Tonight.

Loughlin’s “bad dream” began in March 2019 when she and her husband were accused of paying $500,000 to college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, 21, admitted to the University of Southern California by having the sisters falsely presented as crew team recruits.

More than 30 other parents also were charged in “Operation Varsity Blues” and accused of engaging in similar schemes with Singer. Prosecutors say these parents knowingly lied about their children’s academic and athletic qualifications and relied on complicit coaches — induced by bribes “styled as ‘donations’ to their programs” — to pass their children off as elite athletes. Some of the parents also allegedly relied on Singer to have their children’s SAT or ACT scores boosted in test-cheating schemes.

More than 20 parents, including actress Felicity Huffman, have taken plea deals in the hopes of receiving lighter sentences. Most have received sentences ranging from several months in prison or, in Huffman’s case, to just 14 days.

But Loughlin, Giannulli and 12 other parents, including several from the Bay Area, are fighting the charges. They say they believed the payments they made to a nonprofit Singer managed, or to his alleged accomplices at USC and other universities, were legitimate donations.

On Friday, Gorton rejected motions by these parents’ attorneys, which focused on allegations that the government engaged in misconduct and that, if nothing else, certain evidence should be suppressed.

The evidence consisted of iPhone notes made by Singer after he had begun to cooperate with the investigation in the fall of 2018. Defense attorneys say Singer’s notes show that he was coerced by FBI agents to get the defendants to talk in wire-tapped phone calls about what they may have known about the alleged scheme. In their motions, defense attorneys also said prosecutors failed to turn over Singer’s notes to them in a timely fashion.

“After consideration of the extensive briefing, affidavits and other information provided by the government and defendants, the court is satisfied that the government has not lied to or misled the Court,” Gorton wrote.

The Bay Area parents facing trial are Mill Valley investor Bill McGlashan Jr., Gregory and Amy Colburn of Palo Alto, Todd and Diane Blake of San Francisco, and Marci Palatella of Hillsborough and Healdsburg.

Washington D.C.-based attorney Mark Zaid tweeted that Gorton’s ruling was “correct.” He also said that Loughlin and her daughter, Olivia Jade, have displayed “no remorse” and “unbelievable arrogance” since news of the scandal first broke last year. Prosecutors have released photos of Olivia Jade and Isabella, posed on rowing machines, that they say Loughlin and Giannulli sent to Singer to help create the sisters’ fake crew profiles.

As it should be. I’ve rep’d two students implicated in the academic scandal. One parent went to jail. Loughlin & daughter have displayed no remorse & unbelievable arrogance that they have done nothing wrong.

Justice should always be blind. #RuleOfLaw https://t.co/M9nmL0CpUf

— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) May 8, 2020

Zaid represented the son of Stephen Semprevivo. The Los Angeles business executive paid $400,000 to Singer to have his son admitted to Georgetown University as a fake tennis recruit. Stephen Semprevivo is one of the parents to take a plea deal.

Semprevivo was sentenced to four months in prison after he said he took “full responsibility” for his actions. He also said he should be punished and apologized to his son, his family and to “all the college-bound students and their parents.”

In an interview with this news organization, Zaid said he represented Adam Semprevivo in his lawsuit against Georgetown University after Adam was dismissed from the school. The young man didn’t know about his father’s scheme with Singer, Zaid said. Adam eventually dropped his lawsuit because he was able to take his college credits and transfer to another school.

Zaid contrasts the willingness of Stephen Semprevivo to accept responsibility — in order to help himself and his family move on with their lives — with the legal posture taken by Loughlin, Giannulli and the other parents who are still fighting the charges.

Zaid pointed out Semprevivo and the other parents who took plea deals allegedly committed very similar crimes to those who are still fighting the charges.

“I think it’s very risky, very aggressive posture to take,” Zaid said. “Essentially, I view it as an all-or-nothing defense. If successful, then obviously they will be ecstatic. They willl have gotten off scot-free. Their defense will have cost them a tremendous amount of money. If they fail, if they are convicted, they are going to go away and serve a significant amount of time.”

San Francisco Eric MacMichael agreed that Gorton’s ruling was “a big blow” to Loughlin and the other parents. The motions filed by their attorneys represented their best chance at “derailing the government’s case before trial,” MacMichael said.

But MacMichael, a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, who has represented white-collar defendants in federal securities fraud, insider trader and banking-related cases, doesn’t agree that Gorton’s ruling was correct.

MacMichael said the defense had strong evidence that the government was trying to “manufacture evidence of criminal intent.” He said the government was pushing Singer to lie to the parents “about a critical issue that went to the heart of the government’s case.”

MacMichael also disagreed with the judge’s decision to not hold an evidentiary hearing ahead of the trial, so that Singer could explain whether investigators pressured him to lie. “Given the importance of this evidence, an evidentiary hearing was warranted,” MacMichael said.

In his ruling, Gorton said defense attorneys will have plenty of opportunity to cross-examine Singer at trial about whether he was forced to elicit incriminating statements from the parents and about how he described the purpose of their payments to him and his accomplices.

MacMichael also said that Singer’s iPhone notes provide “powerful evidence” that the parents believed their payments were legitimate donations and not bribes. He furthermore said the notes cast prosecutors in “a bad light” because they show their “role in shaping the evidence.”

Loughlin no doubt hopes her attorneys can prevail at trial because she has no intention of backing down now, the source told Entertainment Tonight. “Lori is convinced she did nothing wrong,” the source said. “Despite her setback, she has no plans to back down” from her not guilty plea. “She strongly believes that (Singer) misrepresented himself and, because she thought he’d acted on behalf of the school, she feels she is innocent.”