BOSTON _ For the swarms of cameras, reporters and passers-by stopping to gawk, what is about to unfold could be another red carpet appearance for Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
But the path, being cleared for them by police and Homeland Security agents, leads not to another awards show but to a courthouse in Boston, where the actresses and 13 other parents are slated to appear Wednesday afternoon before a federal judge.
Huffman and Loughlin are among 33 parents charged last month in a vast conspiracy to sneak the children of wealthy and powerful families into elite universities. Wednesday's proceedings mark the first time Huffman and Loughlin will appear in Boston federal court.
Although most of the defendants live in California, they were charged by the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office, which was tipped off to the college admissions scheme while investigating an unrelated securities fraud that had targeted Massachusetts investors.
Of the total 50 people charged or indicted last month, three have pleaded guilty: William "Rick" Singer, a Newport Beach, Calif., college admissions consultant and the scheme's admitted mastermind; Rudy Meredith, a longtime women's soccer coach at Yale who admitted to pocketing $860,000 in bribes to recruit the children of Singer's clients; and John Vandemoer, Stanford's former sailing coach, who pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge.
Huffman is accused of paying $15,000 for Singer's alleged accomplice _ a 36-year-old Harvard graduate named Mark Riddell _ to correct her daughter's answers on the SAT. Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, are charged with paying Singer $400,000 to have their two daughters admitted to USC in a bogus recruiting scam.
Huffman and Loughlin appeared briefly last month in federal court in Los Angeles, where a judge set their bond and imposed some travel restrictions.
The parents charged in the scheme are under pressure to strike a deal quickly with federal prosecutors to avoid more charges, which could be brought in an indictment, people familiar with the matter have said.
Some have indicated recently that they are close to a deal. An attorney for Devin Sloane, a Los Angeles water systems executive who allegedly paid Singer $250,000 to have his son admitted to the University of Southern California as an elite water polo player, said in a court filing on Tuesday that Sloane was "currently in discussions that are calculated to resolve this matter without a trial."
An attorney for Jane Buckingham, a Los Angeles marketing guru accused of paying Singer $50,000 to doctor her son's ACT, wrote in a court filing that Buckingham was "currently considering a resolution to this matter that would not require a hearing."
Attorneys for both Sloane and Buckingham have asked a judge to delay their appearances on Wednesday, citing their proximity to a deal with prosecutors. The judge, M. Page Kelley, had not responded to their requests as of Wednesday morning.
Fifteen parents will appear in court on Wednesday. Thirteen, including Huffman and Loughlin, will make initial appearances, in which a judge sets bond and the conditions for their release. They will not enter a plea.
Two more parents, Gregory and Amy Colburn, will be arraigned on Wednesday. Like Huffman, Loughlin and the vast majority of their co-defendants, the Colburns were initially charged with one felony count: conspiracy to commit fraud. But a federal grand jury indicted the couple last week on an additional charge of money laundering, signaling the pressure prosecutors are willing to exert on parents slow or unwilling to cooperate.
Patric Hooper, an attorney for the Colburns, said prosecutors refused to show the couple's legal team some of the evidence they'd gathered against them. Hooper said they had also made it clear that any deal would involve both husband and wife pleading guilty to a felony.
"We weren't about to plead to something we can't see," Hooper said last week.
