WS Chronicle

By Dr. James B. Ewers Jr.

I do not know anyone sentenced to prison who wants to go before it is time to go. It does sound a bit strange, doesn’t it? Prison, after all, is not a palatial estate. You are behind bars and your movements are controlled by prison guards.

Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannuli, decided they could not wait so they petitioned the judge to go early. Their original reporting date was Nov. 19; however, they reported this past Friday. In my opinion, there are multiple reasons for their early arrival.

Loughlin has been sentenced to two months and Giannuli to five months. First, I believe Lori Loughlin did not want to spend all of her holiday in jail. She will miss Thanksgiving with the family, but maybe she will get out in time to enjoy some of the yuletide season.

The actress, known for her role as Aunt Becky in “Full House,” is probably ashamed of her rich-person behavior. Her thinking is that money can buy you anything, legal or illegal. In this case it was illegal.

Buying your daughters two scholarships to the University of Southern California was just flat-out wrong. They were to have been members of the USC crew team. Laughable and sad at the same time.

Lori Loughlin said, “I made an awful decision and went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process.”

Seeing her two daughters every day was probably another reason for her early pokey arrival. When we as parents embarrass our children, it is hurtful to them. We are called upon to be good examples for our children. When we do not, bad feelings happen.

Friends calling Lori Loughlin may be another reason for her wanting to make an exit from her house. Talking to a friend about this indiscretion is probably a difficult conversation. How do you talk about cheating to get your kids into college?

You probably just want to run and hide. Loughlin’s hideaway for the foreseeable future will be the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California.

Did COVID-19 have anything to do with her wanting to get to prison early? Maybe she thought she would contract the virus and have to postpone her sentence. That would have been an albatross hanging over her head. 

Judge Nathaniel Gorton has ordered Loughlin to pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. To a multi-millionaire like Lori Loughlin that fine is a drop in the bucket.

In my opinion, this is one of the fallacies of the criminal justice system.

There are people who commit far less serious crimes and are locked up for years. People who are locked up without a voice. People who are locked up and cannot afford adequate defense counsel.

The lawyer for Lori Loughlin and her husband is Sean Berkowitz. “Sean is a prosecutor’s worst nightmare. If Sean has anything to work with at a trial, he can show reasonable doubt,” said Jeffrey Cramer. Cramer and Berkowitz worked together at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago.

I would opine that Loughlin and her husband got off with generous plea bargains. While some may disagree, justice is not blind. Sometimes it has one eye open. This time it was open for Loughlin and Giannuli.

Many are trying to understand why they did not just pay their daughters’ tuition costs. Money certainly was not an issue.

How did they get mixed up with Rick Singer and his Key Worldwide Foundation? I know when college coaches want to offer you a scholarship, they do not send surrogates to do it. Shame on the parents for being duped.

Now with the holidays coming up, they will be in a federal facility. That is unfortunate. The question is, will they be home for Christmas?

James B. Ewers Jr. is a former tennis champion at Atkins High School and played college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University where he was all-conference for four years. He is a retired college administrator and can be reached at overtimefergie.2020@yahoo.com.