Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin Face Court as College Admissions Scandal Rewrites Lives

Even before the 33 parents charged in the scandal have their cases heard in court, they are facing repercussions, from the limitations that come with being on bail to the shame of being held up as examples of greed and entitlement.

They have been placed on leave or lost their jobs, had book contracts canceled and television shows scrapped. They must seek permission to leave the country, and for now, it seems, international vacations are out.

In Boston, the horde of photographers outside the courthouse Wednesday pointed to the public fascination with the case, in which the parents have become symbols of what many believe is a rigged system, not just in college admissions, but in American society at large.

“There does seem to be a certain assumption that these people are guilty just based upon the accusation — and that’s not true, and that’s not fair,” said David Schumacher, a lawyer for two of the parents, Gregory and Amy Colburn, who have proclaimed their innocence.

Loughlin has lost professional opportunities: The Hallmark Channel, where she has major roles on a show and a television movie series, has said that it will stop development of shows featuring her. She and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of conspiring with William Singer — the college consultant at the center of the alleged scheme — to pay $500,000 in bribes to facilitate their daughters’ admission to the University of Southern California. Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges.

Prosecutors say Huffman paid Singer $15,000 to cheat on her daughter’s SAT. It is not clear yet how the charges will affect Huffman’s movie and television projects. But, like Loughlin, Huffman has been derided on social media, and she has deleted her parenting blog, “What the Flicka.”

Huffman’s and Loughlin’s interviews by Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley on Wednesday each lasted less than five minutes.

It is not only the famous parents who have already faced stiff penalties.

Homayoun Zadeh, an associate professor of dentistry at USC, who prosecutors say also conspired with Singer to pay a bribe to get his daughter admitted to the school, has seen his career derailed.

He has been placed on leave by the university, whose interim president described it as essentially a step toward termination. In a motion asking the judge to modify Zadeh’s conditions of release, so that he could speak at conferences in Malaysia, Taiwan, Canada and France, Zadeh’s lawyers said that he had also lost three book contracts. (Most of the parents have been barred from leaving the country.)

According to the criminal complaint, Zadeh and his wife struggled to come up with the $100,000 they had agreed to pay as part of the arrangement, with Zadeh’s wife saying at one point that they were refinancing their house to make the payments.

Prosecutors have accused Gregory Colburn, a radiation oncologist in Palo Alto, California, and his wife, Amy, of conspiring with Singer to cheat on their son’s SAT exam. One of their lawyers, Patric Hooper, said this week that Colburn’s career had been severely damaged because of a chain of consequences that result when a doctor is charged with a crime.

Already, he said, a state licensing board had begun an investigation of Colburn. Colburn had to notify Medicare and Medicaid that he was under investigation — and they could suspend him if they chose to, Hooper said, which would make it very difficult to practice. He has also had to notify the hospitals where he is on the medical staff.

“His reputation is destroyed before he’s even given an opportunity to defend himself,” Hooper said.

The Colburns, who, unlike most of the parents, have already been indicted, pleaded not guilty in a separate hearing Wednesday.

One moment early on in the hearing highlighted another set of consequences, which none of the defendants have spoken about publicly yet — the potential damage to their relationships with their children.

Kelley said that she had told a group of parents who appeared in court last week that they could not discuss the case with family members who were also defendants, or potential witnesses, except in the presence of a lawyer. But she said she would no longer impose that condition.

“I just don’t think that’s realistic,” the judge said. “And I don’t think it’s good for parents not to be able to talk to their children, for example, except in the presence of a lawyer.”

Other parents have been put on leave by their employers, or lost their jobs entirely.

Gordon Caplan, a co-chairman of the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who appeared in court Wednesday, has been placed on leave by the firm. He is accused of conspiring to cheat on his daughter’s ACT exam.

William McGlashan, a major Silicon Valley investor who is charged with conspiring to cheat on his son’s ACT exam and also to bribe an official at USC, either resigned from or was pushed out of his investment firm, TPG.

McGlashan has also had to cancel a planned spring break trip to Mexico with his wife and children. When McGlashan appeared in court last week, his lawyer argued that McGlashan did not represent a flight risk and should be allowed to make the trip with his family, which he said had been planned months before the charges were unveiled.

The prosecution disagreed — and noted that McGlashan had two vacation homes he could travel to instead, one in Big Sky, Montana, worth $12 million, and another in Truckee, California. The judge ultimately did not allow McGlashan to go on the Mexico vacation.

Parents, of course, are not the only ones who have faced consequences. Yale rescinded the admission of one student. USC has said it will reject applicants tied to the case and has informed some current students that they can’t register for classes until the school determines their degree of responsibility. McGlashan’s lawyers noted in a memorandum filed with the court that his son, a senior in high school, had withdrawn his college applications.

Some parents are likely to plead guilty in the coming weeks. One, Peter Jan Sartorio, of Menlo Park, California, said in a filing Wednesday that he intended to plead guilty. He is accused of paying Singer $15,000 to facilitate cheating on his daughter’s ACT exam.

Two other parents scheduled to appear Wednesday, Jane Buckingham and Devin Sloane, filed motions seeking to reschedule their appearances. Both said that they were in discussions with the government to resolve the charges. Buckingham is accused of paying Singer $50,000 to have someone else take the ACT exam for her son. Sloane is accused of conspiring to bribe to have his son admitted to USC as a water polo recruit, even though he did not play water polo competitively.

Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.