LOS ANGELES _ A judge declined Friday to dismiss the fraud, bribery and money laundering charges against Lori Loughlin and her co-defendants, ruling that federal agents and prosecutors did not pressure their chief cooperator, William "Rick" Singer, to mislead his clients on recorded phone calls and draw out flawed evidence of criminal intent.
Attorneys for Loughlin and 13 other parents charged in the college admissions scandal had asked U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton in March to throw out the indictment against them, pointing to a note Singer wrote shortly after he began cooperating in September 2018. Singer, a Newport Beach college admissions consultant, called dozens of clients and, with investigators listening, discussed the various schemes they used to slip their children into prestigious universities.
In one note, Singer said his handlers wanted him to "bend the truth" and get his clients to acknowledge the payments they made to get their children into universities were bribes, not donations to university accounts.
Defense attorneys seized on the notes, which prosecutors acknowledged were belatedly turned over to the defense. William Trach, one of Loughlin's attorneys, said the government's instructing Singer to mislead his clients and obtain flawed evidence, coupled with the overdue disclosure of his notes, amounted to "extraordinary misconduct" meriting the rare step of dismissal.
Gorton disagreed. Questions of whether Singer's clients believed their payments were bribes or donations, or whether Singer described his scheme one way as a conspirator and another as a cooperator, are "squarely for the jury," Gorton wrote.
Loughlin, her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and five more parents are scheduled to begin trial Oct. 5. Loughlin's attorneys didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
