Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / HOLLYWOOD SHOCK: Stars, honchos allegedly spend millions in bribes to get rich kids in fancy schools
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- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Breaking news this morning. Celebrities
- 0:13Speaker 1: and chief executives are among fifty people arrested in a
- 0:16Speaker 1: nationwide college admissions cheating scam. They allegedly paid bribes of
- 0:21Speaker 1: up to six million dollars to get their kids into
- 0:24Speaker 1: elite colleges. ABC's Aaron Katarski has the latest. Good Morning
- 0:28Speaker 1: to you, A Byron, good morning to you. This is
- 0:30Speaker 1: just an incredible scheme that is being prosecuted out of Boston,
- 0:33Speaker 1: where court records have just been unsealed, naming dozens of actresses,
- 0:39Speaker 1: business leaders, and other parents who allegedly paid bribes of
- 0:43Speaker 1: thousands up to millions of dollars to get their kids
- 0:47Speaker 1: into Yale or Stamford or Georgetown or other prominent universities.
- 0:52Speaker 1: In a way, Byron, this scheme seems to confirm the
- 0:55Speaker 1: worst suspicions of those a little bit jaded by the
- 0:59Speaker 1: college admiss process who think it's maybe rigged toward those
- 1:02Speaker 1: with money. Federal prosecutors say these bribes were paid to
- 1:06Speaker 1: a college admissions coach in California who was also under arrest,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and then he would in turn payoff college athletic coach
- 1:14Speaker 1: to dummy up a scholarship or to pay off an
- 1:17Speaker 1: SAT administrator to fake test scores. Wow, you are hearing
- 1:21Speaker 1: from our friends at ABC. That was Eron Katurski and
- 1:24Speaker 1: Byron Pitts talking about a bombshell in the last hours.
- 1:28Speaker 1: As you all know by now, high profile actresses across
- 1:32Speaker 1: Hollywood have been charged along with one of their husbands
- 1:36Speaker 1: and cheating. That's what it boils down to, a massive
- 1:40Speaker 1: college cheating scandal. And I just want to start off
- 1:43Speaker 1: with this. I remember when I got accepted to Mercy
- 1:49Speaker 1: University Law School and I opened up the letter and
- 1:54Speaker 1: I got down on my knees in the driveway in
- 1:59Speaker 1: the ravel and I thanked God that I had gotten
- 2:03Speaker 1: into law school. And I just remember that moment right now.
- 2:09Speaker 1: I cried. I was so grateful because having been a
- 2:12Speaker 1: crime victim after the murder of my fiancee, all I
- 2:16Speaker 1: wanted to do was be a prosecutor. It took me
- 2:19Speaker 1: seven years from that point on to get into a
- 2:24Speaker 1: felony prosecution District Attorney's office, and that admission meant the
- 2:30Speaker 1: world for me. And guess who was my recommendation. It
- 2:34Speaker 1: was not somebody my parents paid five hundred thousand dollars
- 2:36Speaker 1: to they've never seen five hundred thousand dollars in their life.
- 2:41Speaker 1: It was my Sunday school teacher, Jeanette Johnson. She wrote
- 2:44Speaker 1: my recommendation from me to get into law school. I mean, see, Grace,
- 2:50Speaker 1: this is crime stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 2:53Speaker 1: This is not a moral issue, or maybe it is
- 2:56Speaker 1: a moral issue and a crime. Because I'm in the
- 3:00Speaker 1: business of being the church lady. Morality is up to you.
- 3:04Speaker 1: That's between you and your maker. This is about an
- 3:08Speaker 1: alleged prime, a series of crimes joining me, a high
- 3:14Speaker 1: profile and all star lineup. First of all with me.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Jennifer Brovost, co founder of nype S New York PAS,
- 3:23Speaker 1: New York Private Education Advisory Service. Wow, that's a mouthful.
- 3:27Speaker 1: She helps parents place their children in the very best schools.
- 3:30Speaker 1: And I need to talk to you about John, David
- 3:32Speaker 1: and Lucy. Of course they're only in the fifth grade,
- 3:33Speaker 1: but there's it's never too soon. Jennifer Mark Jerome Athletic
- 3:36Speaker 1: consultant Jerome and athletic consultant who guides students interested in
- 3:41Speaker 1: playing varsity in college sports. Well, my son broke his
- 3:43Speaker 1: foot last night, so I guess soccer scholarships out of
- 3:46Speaker 1: the question. Thank you for being with us. Doctor Kim Metcalfe,
- 3:51Speaker 1: author of Let's Build Extraordinary Youth Together. Doctor Metcalfe has
- 3:56Speaker 1: a doctorate degree in educational development psychology. Another mouthful, and
- 4:00Speaker 1: I'm impressed. I don't know what it means, doctor Metcalfe,
- 4:02Speaker 1: but I'm impressed. David Max, indicated talk show host and
- 4:06Speaker 1: also joining me Ashley Wilcot, judge lawyer. You can find
- 4:09Speaker 1: her at Ashley Wilcot dot com. Dave Mack, I'm stunned
- 4:13Speaker 1: the thought of my favorite and don't judge me. I
- 4:18Speaker 1: watch Charlie any TV, but on Sunday nights, I would
- 4:22Speaker 1: take one hour and watch Desperate Housewife. I just couldn't
- 4:26Speaker 1: wait to see who's gonna get killed next. It was
- 4:28Speaker 1: awesome to find out, Dave Mac, that Felicity Huffman, who
- 4:33Speaker 1: we all love and we feel like we know her,
- 4:36Speaker 1: along with Laurie Laughlin, who has a squeaky clean image,
- 4:40Speaker 1: is charged with paying thousands and thousands of dollars to
- 4:44Speaker 1: get their kids in nice schools. What happened, Dave, mat
- 4:47Speaker 1: Just start at the beginning, very beginning, Nancy. Is these
- 4:49Speaker 1: high profile people that we think we know from TV.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Their parents just like the rest of us, and they
- 4:55Speaker 1: all go through the same stresses and strains when their
- 4:57Speaker 1: kids are applying for college. In the cases, we're not
- 5:00Speaker 1: talking about children that are not, are you kidding? What
- 5:04Speaker 1: about just regular grade school? For Pete's sake. I freak
- 5:07Speaker 1: out every time they have a project. I will never
- 5:10Speaker 1: forget dressing John David as Albert Einstein and Lucy as
- 5:14Speaker 1: Anne Frank Okay, and working over and over and over
- 5:18Speaker 1: on their delivery of their little speeches. So you know
- 5:22Speaker 1: it starts a long time before college. Well you're worry
- 5:25Speaker 1: about that guy, Okay. If you've ever seen the Adam
- 5:27Speaker 1: Sandler movie Billy Madison, that's what we're dealing with too
- 5:30Speaker 1: a large degree. But all of this started with a
- 5:32Speaker 1: former high school basketball coach who was fired in nineteen
- 5:35Speaker 1: eighty eight, coached on an assistant level in junior College's
- 5:39Speaker 1: name is William Rick Singer. He's the guy who actually
- 5:42Speaker 1: wrote a book called Getting in Gaining Admission to the
- 5:44Speaker 1: College of your Choice. Now, in that book, I dare
- 5:47Speaker 1: say he didn't say, pay me a lot of money
- 5:49Speaker 1: and I'll bribe people to accept your child who's not
- 5:52Speaker 1: good enough to get into this college. But that's exactly
- 5:54Speaker 1: what he did. He actually began this company in two
- 5:57Speaker 1: thousand and seven called the Edge College and Career Network,
- 6:00Speaker 1: later known as the Key. He incorporated in twenty and
- 6:03Speaker 1: twelve and it since that day. The actually twenty eleven,
- 6:06Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve year where he actually is accused
- 6:08Speaker 1: of starting the idea that you pay him and he
- 6:11Speaker 1: will help orchestrate your child going from high school into college.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Was well, that's certainly putting perfume on the pig orchestrate.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Ashley Wilcott trial lawyer and judge. Ashley's more like bribes
- 6:23Speaker 1: according to the prosecution. And this guy, William Rick Singer
- 6:28Speaker 1: apparently wore a wire and recorded all these phone calls,
- 6:32Speaker 1: handed over emails. And of course, if this ever goes
- 6:35Speaker 1: to a jury trial, which I doubt, he will be
- 6:38Speaker 1: viewed as a rat by the jury. Will that hurt, Yes,
- 6:42Speaker 1: but it won't change the evidence. Ashley Wilcott, I mean orchestrating,
- 6:47Speaker 1: more like bribing, according to the prosecution, bribing coaches, admissions, people,
- 6:53Speaker 1: all sorts of people. That's right. So people may not
- 6:56Speaker 1: like that he wore a wire. They may think poorly
- 6:58Speaker 1: of him for doing that, but the reality as the
- 7:00Speaker 1: prosecution is based on evidence that they anticipate being able
- 7:03Speaker 1: to present, and the evidence is that, yes, these people
- 7:06Speaker 1: paid the children's way into college, that they bribe the
- 7:10Speaker 1: college to admit their children who may not have been
- 7:13Speaker 1: qualified and met the qualifications to get into that school,
- 7:17Speaker 1: but get in because their parents paid a lot of money.
- 7:19Speaker 1: I want to go to our guest this morning, Jennifer Brovo's,
- 7:22Speaker 1: co founder of NYPS, New York Private Education Advisory Service,
- 7:26Speaker 1: helps Paris place their children the very best schools they can. Jennifer,
- 7:29Speaker 1: when I first read this about Felicity Huffman and Laurie Laughlin,
- 7:37Speaker 1: I actually was torn. And you know what a hard
- 7:38Speaker 1: liner I am about crime because as a mom, I
- 7:43Speaker 1: would do almost anything to help my children just advance
- 7:48Speaker 1: a tiny bit forward. I don't care about their prestige
- 7:53Speaker 1: or if they are going to make a lot of
- 7:54Speaker 1: money one day. I care about life being easier for
- 7:58Speaker 1: them than it was for me. You know how hard
- 8:01Speaker 1: I had to work to get into NYU to get
- 8:03Speaker 1: my LLM and Constitutional and criminal law. After I managed
- 8:07Speaker 1: to worm my way in at Mercer, it was hard.
- 8:10Speaker 1: I'd work really hard to get into NYU and beat
- 8:14Speaker 1: out thousands and thousands of other people. I had no
- 8:17Speaker 1: idea you could just pay somebody off. I know, But Nancy,
- 8:20Speaker 1: look at what these parents are actually teaching their children.
- 8:24Speaker 1: Look at what they're showing them. The kind of adults?
- 8:27Speaker 1: Is this the kind of adults that we want to raise, lying, cheating,
- 8:32Speaker 1: a moral adults? I mean, college admissions is about teenagers
- 8:37Speaker 1: finding themselves, finding the right fit, discovering schools that speak
- 8:42Speaker 1: to their passions. And let me just say something. The
- 8:45Speaker 1: best school for a kid is not necessarily one of
- 8:49Speaker 1: these like four or five high profile names. A kid
- 8:53Speaker 1: gets into one of these schools, they have to be
- 8:56Speaker 1: able to perform, they have to be able to stay there.
- 8:59Speaker 1: There are so many any colleges that have wonderful programs,
- 9:03Speaker 1: wonderful seeing that different child. It's not just about these
- 9:08Speaker 1: four or five different colleges, and these parents are not
- 9:12Speaker 1: doing their kids any favors in life. This case is
- 9:15Speaker 1: about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the
- 9:19Speaker 1: steady application of wealth combined with fraud. There can be
- 9:23Speaker 1: no separate college admission system for the wealthy. And they'll
- 9:27Speaker 1: add that there will not be a separate criminal justice
- 9:29Speaker 1: system either. Every year hundreds of thousands of hard working,
- 9:35Speaker 1: talented students strive for admission to elite schools. As every
- 9:39Speaker 1: parent knows, these students work harder and harder every year
- 9:42Speaker 1: in a system that appears to grow more and more
- 9:45Speaker 1: competitive every year. And that system is a zero sum game.
- 9:49Speaker 1: For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented
- 9:54Speaker 1: student was rejected. Wow, you are hearing the Massachusetts US
- 9:58Speaker 1: Attorney Andrew talking about a widening fraud scam, bribery, cheating, extoration.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Five hundred thousand dollars paid to get two children into
- 10:12Speaker 1: elite schools, and I was just talking. Let me go
- 10:16Speaker 1: to doctor Kim Metcalfe, author of Let's Build Extraordinary Youth Together.
- 10:21Speaker 1: Doctor Metcalfe has a doctorate degree in educational developmental psychology.
- 10:25Speaker 1: With me also Mark Jerome, athletic consultant who guide students
- 10:29Speaker 1: interested in playing varsity in college sports. We know that
- 10:32Speaker 1: was part of this scam as well. Coaches allegedly paid
- 10:36Speaker 1: off four kids to get fake spots on teams at school.
- 10:41Speaker 1: They never showed up for practice or faked in injury,
- 10:43Speaker 1: but they got into school. And Jennifer Brovos, the founder
- 10:46Speaker 1: of New York Peas, New York Private Education advisory Service,
- 10:49Speaker 1: Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host, and Ashley Wilcott lawyer
- 10:53Speaker 1: and judge doctor Metcalfe what I was saying earlier, and
- 10:57Speaker 1: I don't think I was saying it very well. I
- 10:59Speaker 1: bet you and Mark Jerome and Jennifer Brovos can say
- 11:01Speaker 1: a lot better. But I remember working three jobs during
- 11:06Speaker 1: law school and Laurie View, which is a job in itself,
- 11:11Speaker 1: and trying to make good grades, and trying to pass
- 11:13Speaker 1: the bar, and trying to afford prep classes for the bar,
- 11:17Speaker 1: and my books. One time almost cried. I didn't because
- 11:22Speaker 1: I thought the check was going to bounce for the
- 11:24Speaker 1: books because my student loan, which I'd paid off, didn't
- 11:27Speaker 1: quite cover everything. And I don't want that from my children.
- 11:31Speaker 1: I want to give them every advantage I can, everything,
- 11:34Speaker 1: so they won't have to do what I had to do,
- 11:37Speaker 1: just like my parents. My mom would go out and
- 11:40Speaker 1: pick pecans and turnips and bag them up in a
- 11:44Speaker 1: string from my grandfather to put on the back of
- 11:47Speaker 1: a truck and sell at the farmer's market. And some
- 11:50Speaker 1: anonymous donor sent her through twelve years of music classes
- 11:56Speaker 1: culminating at the first college for women in the world,
- 11:59Speaker 1: Wesley College. So we had to work for it. I
- 12:04Speaker 1: don't want my children to work that hard, doctor Metcalfe.
- 12:07Speaker 1: But bribing and cheating. What if my children found out
- 12:10Speaker 1: I bribed and cheated people to get them into school. Well,
- 12:14Speaker 1: your main goal as a parent is to make sure
- 12:17Speaker 1: that your kids are resilient and they can make it
- 12:19Speaker 1: through the ups and downs in life. And the truth
- 12:22Speaker 1: is that if you don't qualify on your own merit
- 12:26Speaker 1: to get into a college, and your parents pay. And
- 12:31Speaker 1: I understand that some of the kids were in on
- 12:33Speaker 1: the scam, I'm not and some of them didn't know
- 12:35Speaker 1: about it, so I'm not really certain of you know,
- 12:39Speaker 1: if there were really kids in on the scams. But
- 12:42Speaker 1: if you want your children to be able to go
- 12:45Speaker 1: through the long haul in life, in which they're going
- 12:49Speaker 1: to have lots of disappointments, then you have to let
- 12:53Speaker 1: them face certain situations that are very, very trying. Because
- 12:59Speaker 1: you get them to persist, you're building emotional skills in them. So,
- 13:05Speaker 1: I mean, I've been following you for a long time, Nacy,
- 13:09Speaker 1: and when the twins were first born. Actually, I just
- 13:12Speaker 1: want to apologize for everything I've done wrong right up front.
- 13:15Speaker 1: I don't know if one apology can cover at all. Yeah,
- 13:18Speaker 1: the twins are just the world to me, and I
- 13:20Speaker 1: don't want them to have to work as hard as
- 13:22Speaker 1: I did and my mom and dad did. But you
- 13:24Speaker 1: do want them to succeed in life. You do want
- 13:28Speaker 1: them to grow up to be productive, ethical human beings
- 13:34Speaker 1: that have a strong moral compass, who can ride the
- 13:38Speaker 1: bumps in life and come out unscathed or even stronger
- 13:43Speaker 1: than before they hit the bump. Resilience is the name
- 13:45Speaker 1: of the game. I would just be so afraid I
- 13:47Speaker 1: get busted and be humiliated in front of my children.
- 13:51Speaker 1: To Mark Jerome, athletic consultant, he guides students interested in
- 13:54Speaker 1: varsity college sports in every aspect they need to know
- 13:58Speaker 1: to continue playing, as well as being in the quote
- 14:00Speaker 1: right school for them. I remember when my sister, who
- 14:04Speaker 1: was valedictorian, she majored in oh, let's see accounting, with
- 14:09Speaker 1: also a double major in German and a specialty in chemistry.
- 14:14Speaker 1: Let's just say she's brilliant. I remember when she got
- 14:18Speaker 1: into the Wharton School and she went on to be
- 14:22Speaker 1: the first woman on tenure track teaching at Wharton in
- 14:27Speaker 1: risk management insurance. We were so proud because nothing like
- 14:31Speaker 1: that had ever happened to our family ever. My father
- 14:35Speaker 1: would just cry when he would tell people. We were
- 14:37Speaker 1: just so proud. They never finished college and had a
- 14:40Speaker 1: hard scrabble life and this was just the you know,
- 14:43Speaker 1: the ultimate, Mark Jerome, You and Jennifer and doctor Metcalfe
- 14:48Speaker 1: have had to have seen parents just like this, willing
- 14:52Speaker 1: to do anything, even break the law. How did the
- 14:55Speaker 1: scam work? To your understanding, you're the athletic consultant, because
- 14:59Speaker 1: from what I'm learning, they would There's actually been one
- 15:03Speaker 1: coach I think it was a crew coach somewhere that
- 15:05Speaker 1: has been fired already, a female coach. But how do
- 15:10Speaker 1: you how does this work in this scam? How would
- 15:13Speaker 1: it work? Mark Jerome? Well, I want to I want
- 15:15Speaker 1: to go back something just you resurrected some of my
- 15:17Speaker 1: feelings and thoughts about me receiving when you talked about
- 15:21Speaker 1: yourself getting into law school. When I received my scholarship
- 15:24Speaker 1: offer to play college basketball, and it was such an
- 15:27Speaker 1: incredible great feeling because I had worked so hard, and
- 15:32Speaker 1: I remember my son recently getting a college scholarship to
- 15:35Speaker 1: a college to a Division one college basketball for a
- 15:37Speaker 1: Division one college basketball at a prominent school. And I
- 15:41Speaker 1: when I got the form with the coach, I screamed, jumped, cried.
- 15:44Speaker 1: It was like I hit the lotto. So I completely
- 15:47Speaker 1: get those feelings that you have and your sister had.
- 15:50Speaker 1: As my understanding is, several coaches are either have been
- 15:54Speaker 1: fired or on paid lee or on leave right now,
- 15:57Speaker 1: and it sounds like I understand the form well now.
- 16:01Speaker 1: The former Yale women's soccer coach received four hundred thousand
- 16:05Speaker 1: dollars from Singer after he took I guess Singer paid
- 16:08Speaker 1: paid the YA soccer coach four tow thousand after he
- 16:11Speaker 1: took one point two million from a family, and he
- 16:14Speaker 1: distributed to this soccer coach and possibly among other others
- 16:17Speaker 1: as well. So but this has been going on for
- 16:20Speaker 1: a while. And also it doesn't just start at the
- 16:22Speaker 1: college level. It starts at young ages. And I think
- 16:25Speaker 1: there's a trend amongst very wealthy people where they want
- 16:28Speaker 1: to be so protective of their kids and where they're
- 16:31Speaker 1: the status is so important and valuable to them that
- 16:34Speaker 1: they're willing to do anything and everything to say that
- 16:37Speaker 1: my kid goes to Princeton, or my kid goes to Harvard,
- 16:40Speaker 1: or my kid goes to whatever prominent school that they
- 16:42Speaker 1: want to push for their kids to attend. And deft Mark,
- 16:47Speaker 1: Mark Ye, doctor Kim Metcalfe, Jennifer Brovos, Dave mack ashe Willcott.
- 16:53Speaker 1: If you can buy your way into a school, I mean,
- 16:56Speaker 1: what good is it? What good is the school? What
- 17:00Speaker 1: good is the system? If? How could the school not
- 17:04Speaker 1: know about this? How could o? How could they get
- 17:08Speaker 1: somebody in on a crew scholarship? And then repeatedly, over
- 17:12Speaker 1: and over, people don't show up, they drop out of crew,
- 17:15Speaker 1: they fake an injury. Doesn't anybody notice a pattern? Mark
- 17:19Speaker 1: after a certain point. They're different methods in different schools
- 17:23Speaker 1: have different policies. So for an Ivy League school, there
- 17:27Speaker 1: are no scholarships, no athletic scholarships, So you can have
- 17:32Speaker 1: your your roster can be as large as you want.
- 17:34Speaker 1: And if somebody decides I got into the school and
- 17:36Speaker 1: drops off the team, who cares an So they're also
- 17:41Speaker 1: some schools also have walk on spots. There was a
- 17:43Speaker 1: big story yesterday that broke out. I don't know how big.
- 17:46Speaker 1: The story is a former pencil University of penn coach
- 17:49Speaker 1: was fired, but during a couple of years ago, during
- 17:52Speaker 1: his reign at U Pennon, he was a former player
- 17:55Speaker 1: there as well, former standout player. He was a key
- 17:57Speaker 1: I think I believe he accepted three hundred thousand dollars
- 18:00Speaker 1: and cash to recruit a kid that wasn't qualified to
- 18:05Speaker 1: be on the end of the bench. And so when
- 18:09Speaker 1: the kid got there, he wasn't qualified to play. He
- 18:12Speaker 1: was either let go of the team or he resigned,
- 18:14Speaker 1: but it didn't matter because the kid was already in
- 18:16Speaker 1: the school crime stories with Nancy Grace, we're here today
- 18:35Speaker 1: to announce charges in the largest college admissions scam ever
- 18:39Speaker 1: prosecuted by the Department of Justice. We've charged fifty people
- 18:43Speaker 1: nationwide with participating in a conspiracy that involved first cheating
- 18:49Speaker 1: on college entrance exams, meaning the SAT and the ACT,
- 18:53Speaker 1: and second securing admission to elite colleges by bribing coaches
- 18:58Speaker 1: at those schools to xcept certain students under false pretenses.
- 19:03Speaker 1: In return for bribes, these coaches agreed to pretend that
- 19:06Speaker 1: certain applicants were recruited competitive athletes, when in fact the
- 19:11Speaker 1: applicants were not. As the coaches knew the students athletic
- 19:15Speaker 1: credentials had been fabricated bribes totaling twenty five million dollars.
- 19:20Speaker 1: And let me just confess. Before I was a state
- 19:23Speaker 1: prosecutor felony crimes, I was a FED. I was a
- 19:27Speaker 1: FED for three years, one year as a judicial law
- 19:30Speaker 1: clerk in the Federal court, and two years doing antitrust
- 19:34Speaker 1: and consumer protection with the Federal Trade Commission. Let me
- 19:38Speaker 1: tell you something. The Feds don't play. They will not
- 19:41Speaker 1: It used to drive me insane. They will not move
- 19:45Speaker 1: on a case until they have about a room full
- 19:49Speaker 1: of paper proving the case, which will bore a jury
- 19:53Speaker 1: out of their skull, but it proves the case. They
- 19:57Speaker 1: will have everybody wired, They will have photos from a satellite.
- 20:02Speaker 1: For Pete's sake, they got it all. When the Feds
- 20:06Speaker 1: come after you, you know what, you might as well
- 20:08Speaker 1: just lay down and play Doormatt. It's over. And here's
- 20:11Speaker 1: the other thing, Dave Matt. Isn't it true that when
- 20:13Speaker 1: they arrested Felicity Huffman, everybody in the house was asleep,
- 20:17Speaker 1: her and her husband, who's also a famous star movie star.
- 20:21Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the two girls are there
- 20:24Speaker 1: and they came bamming on the door and pulled their guns.
- 20:26Speaker 1: Is this true, Dave matt Yes, ma'am. Six o'clock in
- 20:29Speaker 1: the morning, and they woke up the entire house. As
- 20:31Speaker 1: you said. William H. Mathey is Felicity Huffman's husband. He
- 20:35Speaker 1: and the girls were both asleep. Felicity Huffman comes downstairs.
- 20:38Speaker 1: They were aware this was coming down, but they didn't
- 20:40Speaker 1: know that the Feds were going to show up at
- 20:42Speaker 1: their door with guns drawn. Now, they did this all
- 20:45Speaker 1: throughout when they were serving these arrestaurants, and the FED
- 20:49Speaker 1: showed there are six that showed up at Felicity Huffman's
- 20:51Speaker 1: house guns drawn, greeted her at the door, you know,
- 20:54Speaker 1: and pulled the felony stock Well, I don't know that
- 20:56Speaker 1: I would say greeted her. Yeah. Ash Wilcott Law or
- 21:00Speaker 1: a judge at Ashley Wilcott dot com. Ashley, you're in
- 21:03Speaker 1: the middle of getting your children into vary schools. You've
- 21:06Speaker 1: got three plus a rabbit, and I don't know how
- 21:09Speaker 1: many other animals are living at that house, but that's
- 21:11Speaker 1: a whole nother can of worms. I really don't have
- 21:14Speaker 1: a leg to stand on with a cat, a dog,
- 21:15Speaker 1: and two guinea pigs plus my mother. So there's a
- 21:18Speaker 1: lot happening in our houses. But here's a deal, Ashley.
- 21:23Speaker 1: You're a judge, you know the deal. If they arrested
- 21:27Speaker 1: everybody else in the same manner and did not have
- 21:29Speaker 1: their guns with Felicity Huffman's house, they would have been
- 21:32Speaker 1: trashed for preferential treatment. You know that right, So, yes,
- 21:37Speaker 1: it seems like overkill, but you have to treat everybody
- 21:42Speaker 1: the same way, and really that's what this prosecution is
- 21:45Speaker 1: all about, I think, Ashley. Absolutely, they have to treat
- 21:48Speaker 1: everyone in the same way. First of all, fifty people
- 21:50Speaker 1: have been named. They're probably more out there who haven't
- 21:52Speaker 1: been identified. Number one, excuse me. Number two. Here's the
- 21:56Speaker 1: thing I question though, did they really have their guns
- 22:00Speaker 1: on with all fifty? Did they really? If they did,
- 22:03Speaker 1: then it should have been in this case. But I
- 22:04Speaker 1: would submit, is that really the way that it's handled
- 22:08Speaker 1: when they arrest or do they start peacefully? Well? I
- 22:12Speaker 1: can answer that. Let me q and A with myself
- 22:14Speaker 1: for a moment. Yes, because when you are going into
- 22:19Speaker 1: a home, you don't know what's going to happen. You
- 22:21Speaker 1: don't know if somebody in there is going to mistake
- 22:23Speaker 1: you for a burglar and shoot you dead. You don't
- 22:26Speaker 1: know what's going to happen. I remember in my first
- 22:29Speaker 1: year as a felony prosecutor, I befriended a copy just
- 22:33Speaker 1: got married Schipanni. He pulled over a kid for a
- 22:38Speaker 1: traffic violation. The kid shot him in the face dead. Bam.
- 22:45Speaker 1: You never know what's going to happen. I remember my investigator,
- 22:50Speaker 1: Earnest grabbing, grabbing me by the shoulders, and both of
- 22:54Speaker 1: us diving off of a porch because we were delivering
- 22:58Speaker 1: subpoenas in a triple murder case and we knocked on
- 23:02Speaker 1: the door. He saw it first. I saw it second,
- 23:05Speaker 1: the barrel of a shotgun pointing right at us through
- 23:08Speaker 1: a screen door. It was bright on the outside and
- 23:13Speaker 1: dark on the inside. Yeah, it happens, you darn right,
- 23:17Speaker 1: that's how that goes. But you know, we're talking about
- 23:21Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars, And when I think about
- 23:25Speaker 1: all the people I've tried to help get scholarships and
- 23:28Speaker 1: get placed, and here, basically you could just pay it off.
- 23:32Speaker 1: One person accused of five hundred thousand dollars payoffs not
- 23:39Speaker 1: Felicity Huffman. I noticed that her husband has not been charged,
- 23:45Speaker 1: but she has interesting to Jennifer Brovo's co founder of
- 23:50Speaker 1: New York peas New York Private Education Advisory Service. What
- 23:53Speaker 1: do you tell parents when they're like out of their
- 23:55Speaker 1: mind to get their child in the most elite school
- 23:59Speaker 1: and they're willing to do anything, even break the law
- 24:02Speaker 1: to get it done. Well, my company does not work
- 24:07Speaker 1: with families who want to break the law. I mean,
- 24:09Speaker 1: that's not something that we do. I definitely encourage families
- 24:15Speaker 1: who want to go to specific schools to have their
- 24:19Speaker 1: kids do things that might make them look better in
- 24:23Speaker 1: their applications. I work with kids to help them if
- 24:27Speaker 1: they need help on their college essays. I encourage them
- 24:30Speaker 1: to apply to different colleges. Maybe they have early decision,
- 24:35Speaker 1: which really gives you a leg up if you apply
- 24:37Speaker 1: to a college early decision or early action. But it's true,
- 24:42Speaker 1: families are frantic. Parents will do anything to get their
- 24:45Speaker 1: kids into these schools. But you know, the kinds of
- 24:49Speaker 1: things that these people did, or they're just so unethical
- 24:56Speaker 1: and immoral and really pretty disgusting that it's just not
- 25:01Speaker 1: how we work and it's just not something that we encourage.
- 25:07Speaker 1: I guess you have to talk a lot of parents
- 25:09Speaker 1: off the lane, off the ledge, because they'll basically try anything.
- 25:15Speaker 1: You know. We now know that one coach at Yale
- 25:21Speaker 1: has already been fired. Listen. In one example, the head
- 25:26Speaker 1: women's soccer coach at Yale, in exchange for four hundred
- 25:29Speaker 1: thousand dollars, accepted an applicant as a recruit for the
- 25:33Speaker 1: Yale women's team, despite knowing that the applicant did not
- 25:37Speaker 1: even play competitive soccer. The student was in fact admitted,
- 25:41Speaker 1: and afterward the students family paid Singer one point two
- 25:45Speaker 1: million dollars for that service. In addition to the standardized
- 25:49Speaker 1: test scam and the college admission scam, Singer also arranged
- 25:53Speaker 1: for someone to take online high school classes in place
- 25:57Speaker 1: of certain students so that those students could submit higher
- 26:01Speaker 1: grades as part of their overall college application pack. And
- 26:04Speaker 1: that's just the tip of the Iceberg Ashley Wilcot, judge
- 26:08Speaker 1: and lawyer and anchor way in, here's what I want
- 26:11Speaker 1: to say, Nancy. Yes, parents do anything for their children.
- 26:14Speaker 1: If they're good parents, you do anything for your children.
- 26:17Speaker 1: I do anything for my children, but not without integrity.
- 26:20Speaker 1: So there's the line. Right A. Parents should do anything
- 26:22Speaker 1: for their children as long as they have integrity. It
- 26:26Speaker 1: doesn't mean cheating, it doesn't mean bribing, it doesn't mean
- 26:29Speaker 1: I've got money, so I'm going to pay to get
- 26:31Speaker 1: them in where i want to get them in. That
- 26:33Speaker 1: is not good parenting, you know. Felicity Hufman starting the
- 26:37Speaker 1: ABC hit series Desperate Housewives, and Lauthlin aunt Becky in
- 26:43Speaker 1: Full House and now Fuller House now facing charges of
- 26:47Speaker 1: conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest Services mail fraud.
- 26:53Speaker 1: I'm telling you it's hard to beat that in court.
- 26:56Speaker 1: It's really hard. Who else has been charged, Dave, and
- 27:00Speaker 1: I understand that in one of these cases, a procter
- 27:03Speaker 1: or somebody who administers the SAT was paid to go
- 27:08Speaker 1: in and correct Felicity Huffman's daughter's test, and that put
- 27:13Speaker 1: in and correct to put all the answers. And then
- 27:15Speaker 1: in the other case, the mom paid five hundred thousand
- 27:18Speaker 1: dollars to get her kids in school. What well, you know,
- 27:22Speaker 1: when you look at what you were just talking about
- 27:24Speaker 1: with Felicity Huffman's SAT or act, they actually she scored
- 27:29Speaker 1: over a thousand on the first time she took it.
- 27:31Speaker 1: That wasn't high enough, so they went and paid this
- 27:34Speaker 1: proctor to give her an additional time in taking the test,
- 27:38Speaker 1: and then after she left, the proctor actually corrected the
- 27:41Speaker 1: answers so that she improved her score to over fourteen
- 27:44Speaker 1: hundred on the SAT. Those are the types of people
- 27:47Speaker 1: were talking about, and there were four of those in
- 27:49Speaker 1: that first fifty four people who were actually administered. They're
- 27:52Speaker 1: called proctors, those who actually overview the SAT and ACT testing.
- 27:58Speaker 1: They're accused of taking money to change scores, to change
- 28:01Speaker 1: answers rather on those tests. The others that are involved
- 28:05Speaker 1: in this again the coaches who actually said that different
- 28:08Speaker 1: young individuals were being recruited for sports because athletes have
- 28:12Speaker 1: lower requirements for getting into these colleges, which is again
- 28:15Speaker 1: something to talk about. They can get much lower ACT
- 28:19Speaker 1: or SAT scores, they can get much lower GPAs and
- 28:22Speaker 1: be admitted as athletes. That's why these coaches, in particular
- 28:25Speaker 1: the crew coach at USC, that's why you've got a
- 28:28Speaker 1: problem there. We're still waiting because according to what I'm seeing, Nancy,
- 28:33Speaker 1: there's going to be a number of other high high
- 28:34Speaker 1: profile people, not necessarily actors and actresses, but a number
- 28:38Speaker 1: of rich business people who again they see their own
- 28:41Speaker 1: success through their children and are willing to throw character
- 28:45Speaker 1: out the window, and it's shocking. I had three kids
- 28:48Speaker 1: in college at the same time, Nancy, and all the
- 28:50Speaker 1: way through. Our whole goal was make sure you know
- 28:53Speaker 1: why you're there, what you want to get out of it,
- 28:56Speaker 1: because this is your life, not mine. The head sailing
- 28:59Speaker 1: coaches Stanford University at federal court on his way to
- 29:02Speaker 1: plead guilty to charges in a bombshell college admissions cheating scandal.
- 29:07Speaker 1: Federal prosecutors say fifty people, including Hollywood actresses and college coaches,
- 29:12Speaker 1: are charged in what's being billed as the biggest college
- 29:15Speaker 1: admissions cheating scandal they've ever seen. They say wealthy people
- 29:19Speaker 1: spent millions to rate the system so their kids could
- 29:21Speaker 1: get into elite colleges and universities. There can be no
- 29:25Speaker 1: separate college admissions system for the wealthy, and they'll add
- 29:29Speaker 1: that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.
- 29:32Speaker 1: Federal agents arrested dozens in an operation they called Varsity Blues,
- 29:37Speaker 1: involving many elite colleges, including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, University of
- 29:43Speaker 1: San Diego, University of Southern California, the University of Texas
- 29:47Speaker 1: at Austin, wake Forest, and Yale oh Man that's like
- 29:51Speaker 1: a dag or two. My heart. Those are schools that
- 29:54Speaker 1: I dream of one day my twins getting into, but
- 29:59Speaker 1: I can't afford five hundred thousand dollars to pay people
- 30:02Speaker 1: off to get them in. I'm Nancy Grace. This is
- 30:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories, and you were just listening to our friend
- 30:07Speaker 1: Sherman Zacchetti at WHDHTV reporting from Boston on a major,
- 30:14Speaker 1: major legal bombshell right now, over fifty people involved, but
- 30:19Speaker 1: the net is widening with me. Jennifer Brovos to Mark Jerome,
- 30:23Speaker 1: doctor Kim Metcalfe, Dave Mack, Ashley Wilcott to Mark Jerome,
- 30:28Speaker 1: renowned athletic consultant guiding students interested in playing college sports.
- 30:33Speaker 1: Now I get it, Okay, they didn't all also say
- 30:38Speaker 1: their child was an athlete and they weren't trying for scholarships.
- 30:44Speaker 1: Some were just paying off admissions according to the FEDS.
- 30:48Speaker 1: Others were saying, well, my child is in crew, so
- 30:52Speaker 1: that gives them an added edge to get in, not
- 30:55Speaker 1: necessarily a scholarship. So, Mark Jerome, we just heard that
- 31:00Speaker 1: a coach at Yale has been fired. How would it work?
- 31:05Speaker 1: I mean, so Rick Singer, the mastermind of all this
- 31:08Speaker 1: who later wore a wire to ensnare all of these
- 31:11Speaker 1: moms and dads. What would he go to the coach instead?
- 31:16Speaker 1: I've got a great kid. I'll make it worth your while.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I mean, I could just hear it playing out, Mark Jerome.
- 31:21Speaker 1: I'm not privy to all the details how this went down,
- 31:25Speaker 1: but based on information I've had in the past or
- 31:29Speaker 1: other stories I've heard, it really does start. It goes
- 31:32Speaker 1: way beyond. It starts earlier than the incology, starts in
- 31:35Speaker 1: high school. Starts in middle school where parents pay to
- 31:38Speaker 1: have their kids play on certain teams on certain high
- 31:41Speaker 1: level or high with lots of exposure on youth teams
- 31:46Speaker 1: that travel around just again for the status, without any integrity,
- 31:50Speaker 1: and what happens to the kids when they fail. So
- 31:53Speaker 1: I don't know how everything with the processes. I mean,
- 31:58Speaker 1: I know that you have helped steer people as a
- 32:01Speaker 1: consultant to get on a team at a school, to
- 32:06Speaker 1: say you would probably qualify for this school or this
- 32:09Speaker 1: team or that team. And I'm sure you taught to coaches.
- 32:13Speaker 1: I mean, I wonder how they smell out a coach
- 32:15Speaker 1: that's willing to take a bribe. That's a big bribe.
- 32:18Speaker 1: Four hundred thousand dollars. That is a lot of money,
- 32:23Speaker 1: you know, Mark, Jerome, don't judge me, but there's always
- 32:28Speaker 1: a butt, right. My children both play soccer. My son, oh,
- 32:32Speaker 1: he had a head injury when he was about three,
- 32:34Speaker 1: so I don't want him to play football. The other
- 32:37Speaker 1: day he threw a football in the front yard. My
- 32:40Speaker 1: heart hurt. He has an arm like a bullet. But
- 32:44Speaker 1: it's not worth another head injury. So he plays soccer.
- 32:48Speaker 1: No head injury. She plays soccer. He plays basketball. And
- 32:53Speaker 1: my husband was all freaked out about missing a practice.
- 32:55Speaker 1: I'm like, it's not like they're getting a scholarship, David.
- 32:59Speaker 1: It's not either play in the World Cup next week
- 33:01Speaker 1: for Pete's sake. It's local peewee soccer, all right, It's
- 33:06Speaker 1: just so they get exercise and run around. What is
- 33:08Speaker 1: that the wrong attitude? I'm smiling, eared, Mark, this is
- 33:11Speaker 1: for you. I'm smiling ear to ear listening to you,
- 33:14Speaker 1: listen to the to the in hopes of the domestic battle.
- 33:17Speaker 1: About the intensity and the level of intensity and commitment.
- 33:21Speaker 1: Young kids should be having two sports at such a
- 33:23Speaker 1: young age. And I go through this question almost every
- 33:26Speaker 1: day from parents, and I don't and also the questions
- 33:30Speaker 1: become should kids be doing committed to one sport? But
- 33:35Speaker 1: it starts early. It's so competitive. It's incredibly competitive, just
- 33:39Speaker 1: as trying to get into any school is so competitive.
- 33:41Speaker 1: It's scholarships are combetive because they're so few of them.
- 33:46Speaker 1: So what's at stake is so huge and so large.
- 33:49Speaker 1: The people are willing to do anything so well, Some
- 33:53Speaker 1: people are willing to do anything, including compromising any type
- 33:55Speaker 1: of integrity, to help get their kids into schools. And listen,
- 34:00Speaker 1: my kids started when they were very young. I pushed
- 34:04Speaker 1: them hard when they were young. I think you are judged.
- 34:06Speaker 1: I think you're judging me because I'm serious about peewee soccer. Yes,
- 34:12Speaker 1: I hear it. It's just oozing from every word. I'm
- 34:17Speaker 1: not laugh ha ha ha. Your kid will be like
- 34:21Speaker 1: it Stanford on some team, and mine will be in
- 34:24Speaker 1: a local community college eking it out, hoping he makes
- 34:27Speaker 1: to be um Dave Mexi, syndicated talk show host, Let
- 34:32Speaker 1: me ask you a question. What exactly are the allegations
- 34:36Speaker 1: against the two actresses um Well with regard to Felicity Huffman,
- 34:42Speaker 1: she's accused of giving this William Ricks Singer fifteen thousand
- 34:46Speaker 1: dollars to pay a proctor to a just the SAT
- 34:51Speaker 1: score of her daughter, which went from a ten to
- 34:55Speaker 1: twenty score to a fourteen twenty score. The charges against
- 34:58Speaker 1: Lorie Laughlin a little more serious and a lot more money.
- 35:01Speaker 1: She's accused. She and her husband, who is a famous designer.
- 35:04Speaker 1: I've never heard of him. They're accused of spending a
- 35:07Speaker 1: half million dollars too. I don't think anyone would ever
- 35:11Speaker 1: accuse you of wearing design a closed date about you
- 35:15Speaker 1: know what? There is an interesting twist here. Gordon Ernst
- 35:18Speaker 1: was the Georgetown tennis coach from twenty and twelve to
- 35:21Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. You might have heard of him because he
- 35:24Speaker 1: was the private instructor for Michelle Obama and Sasha Emilia.
- 35:29Speaker 1: He's accused of getting three million dollars in bribes to
- 35:32Speaker 1: get students onto the Georgetown tennis team. And now they're
- 35:37Speaker 1: not accusing him of being involved with Sasha Malia or anything.
- 35:40Speaker 1: But there's a direct tie there with Michelle Obama and
- 35:43Speaker 1: Gordon Ernst. Back to Lauflin for a minute. A half
- 35:46Speaker 1: million dollars and here's the difference. You guys were talking
- 35:49Speaker 1: about the FED showing up with guns drawn. Well, she's
- 35:51Speaker 1: working in Vancouver shooting fuller house or something. They're allowing
- 35:55Speaker 1: her to fly back in and turn herself in so
- 35:59Speaker 1: that even even at pulling guns on everybody at six
- 36:01Speaker 1: in the morning not pull off for her. They did
- 36:03Speaker 1: get her husband and he had to put their house
- 36:05Speaker 1: up for grabs as part of getting them bonded out
- 36:08Speaker 1: or bailed out rather, So we're looking at a half
- 36:10Speaker 1: million dollars that they're accused of giving this guy to
- 36:13Speaker 1: help get her daughter, who is a YouTube star named
- 36:15Speaker 1: Olivia Jade, who last year when she was talking about
- 36:19Speaker 1: her flip and attitude about college, caught a lot of
- 36:21Speaker 1: online grief. If you want to go, you can watch
- 36:23Speaker 1: those videos. I don't encourage it. You will lose IQ
- 36:26Speaker 1: points just by watching her videos. But the bottom line
- 36:29Speaker 1: is these rich and famous people are accused of doing
- 36:31Speaker 1: what most of us expect rich and famous people to do,
- 36:34Speaker 1: skirt all the rules the rest of us have to
- 36:35Speaker 1: play by. This is not a case where parents were
- 36:38Speaker 1: acting in the best interests of their children. This is
- 36:42Speaker 1: a case where they flaunted their wealth, sparing no expense
- 36:46Speaker 1: to cheat the system so they could set their children
- 36:49Speaker 1: up for success with the best education money could buy. Literally,
- 36:55Speaker 1: some spent anywhere from two hundred thousand to six and
- 36:58Speaker 1: a half million dollars for guaranteed admission. Their actions were,
- 37:04Speaker 1: without a doubt, insidious, selfish, and shameful. Wow, that's FBI
- 37:10Speaker 1: Special Agent in charge Joseph Bonavalanta talking to the press.
- 37:17Speaker 1: Selfish and shameful. I mean, it's a flat out bribe.
- 37:22Speaker 1: To Ashley Wilcot, judge and lawyer, explain why this is
- 37:27Speaker 1: not a white lie, why this is actually alleged to
- 37:32Speaker 1: be a federal crime because Nancy, under the definition, there
- 37:37Speaker 1: was an exchange of something of value money in this case,
- 37:42Speaker 1: to reap a benefit that was not you under a contract,
- 37:47Speaker 1: but instead for gain inappropriately. It's illegal. It's then a bribe,
- 37:52Speaker 1: you know. To Jennifer Brovo's, co founder of New York
- 37:56Speaker 1: ps peas. It is a private education advisory service to
- 38:00Speaker 1: help parents place their children in the best schools that
- 38:03Speaker 1: they can get them into. You know, Jennifer, it hurt
- 38:08Speaker 1: me when I heard this. I was stunned because you know,
- 38:11Speaker 1: when you watch people on TV, you think you know
- 38:13Speaker 1: them kind of they're in your home every night, and
- 38:16Speaker 1: you get a feel for what you think the personality
- 38:19Speaker 1: is and you grow attached to them. I do. At
- 38:23Speaker 1: the end of Monk, I had to go lay down.
- 38:25Speaker 1: I've just gotta tell you. I just couldn't take it.
- 38:28Speaker 1: But Jennifer, this is a huge, huge black eye to
- 38:33Speaker 1: yours and marks and doctor Metcalf's business. It's like you
- 38:37Speaker 1: could just buy your way into any school. It's not
- 38:40Speaker 1: about merit. The IVY leagues mean nothing. I mean when
- 38:43Speaker 1: I got into NYU, true it's not an IVY League,
- 38:49Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. And I had struggled, you know,
- 38:52Speaker 1: tried so hard to get into Mercer and as I said,
- 38:54Speaker 1: got down on my knees and prayed, Thank God, I
- 38:58Speaker 1: got into Mercery Law School. But it's all like it
- 39:02Speaker 1: means nothing if you can just pay your way in
- 39:05Speaker 1: like a movie ticket. Junifer, Well, first of all, I
- 39:08Speaker 1: want to say I also went to NYU, and it
- 39:10Speaker 1: might not have been in Ivy League school, but it
- 39:13Speaker 1: is a school where I found a voice, I found passion,
- 39:18Speaker 1: and it made me. I loved it too. I mean,
- 39:21Speaker 1: I grew up in a small suburb and I got
- 39:23Speaker 1: to move to the city and really found myself at
- 39:26Speaker 1: that school. And so when I talk about you know,
- 39:29Speaker 1: going to one of these like five elite schools that
- 39:32Speaker 1: are on this list. It's there are so many different
- 39:35Speaker 1: colleges that are going to speak to so many different kids.
- 39:38Speaker 1: In this case, I feel really bad for all the
- 39:41Speaker 1: children my son included. I'm going through the college process
- 39:44Speaker 1: with him right now, so work really hard. Who spent
- 39:48Speaker 1: weekends studying for their acts, trying to get their scores up,
- 39:52Speaker 1: who took the time to research colleges and find different
- 39:56Speaker 1: programs that speak to them, and worked hard and went
- 40:00Speaker 1: to their teachers who really talked to them about, you know,
- 40:03Speaker 1: how they could get their grades up and what they
- 40:05Speaker 1: could do extracurricular wise. And it's just it makes democrapy
- 40:10Speaker 1: to all of these kids who are sitting around right
- 40:12Speaker 1: now because regular decisions are coming out at the beginning
- 40:16Speaker 1: of April, and these kids are probably sitting here going
- 40:20Speaker 1: what did I do? Why aren't my parents just buying
- 40:23Speaker 1: my way into school because I really want to go
- 40:25Speaker 1: to this school. It's just such a terrible precedent for everyone.
- 40:29Speaker 1: It's a terrible. It's awful. Yeah, And you know what's
- 40:33Speaker 1: happening tonight tonight tonight after soccer practice for Lucy Well
- 40:39Speaker 1: John David Broke's foot. He can't go after choir practice,
- 40:44Speaker 1: after the family nights separate at the church. We are going,
- 40:48Speaker 1: and it's going to be way past our bedtime for
- 40:50Speaker 1: our first boy scout, and soon Lucy will be on
- 40:57Speaker 1: the same train to try to make eagle or silver Scout.
- 41:01Speaker 1: And they went, what is it, mom? Now it's in
- 41:04Speaker 1: four h but we don't have that here. And so
- 41:09Speaker 1: we're doing Scouts. I said, because you learn so much,
- 41:14Speaker 1: and you meet new people, and you learn how to camp,
- 41:16Speaker 1: and you learn this, and you learned that, and one day,
- 41:19Speaker 1: one day, when you're trying to get into a fancy school,
- 41:26Speaker 1: they're going to see eagle scout and you might get in.
- 41:31Speaker 1: And then this hits. I think about what I'm putting
- 41:33Speaker 1: my children through and all of our hopes and our dreams,
- 41:37Speaker 1: and it's very hurtful. NOTR Metcalf, Well, remember something, You're
- 41:43Speaker 1: giving your kids the best gift. And even though it
- 41:47Speaker 1: seems like a lot of these people have bought their
- 41:51Speaker 1: kids way into a prestigious college, the bottom line is
- 41:57Speaker 1: they have not done their kids anything. As those of
- 42:01Speaker 1: us that stay on the ethical line, we are helping
- 42:06Speaker 1: our kids in the long run. There is nothing in
- 42:11Speaker 1: the world like working really hard for something and achieving it.
- 42:17Speaker 1: And Nancy you and another way of the camelists were
- 42:21Speaker 1: saying how great you felt when you were accepted. Imagine
- 42:26Speaker 1: finding out that you weren't really accepted. Your parents bought
- 42:30Speaker 1: your way in. You never have to think about that.
- 42:33Speaker 1: You did it on your own. That is the greatest
- 42:36Speaker 1: gift we give our kids. It really is. I don't
- 42:41Speaker 1: know why. I actually that made me cheer up, because
- 42:44Speaker 1: you know you're a girl Scout leader, so you know
- 42:47Speaker 1: what's involved and being a silver Scout or an Eagle Scout,
- 42:50Speaker 1: and it's for that learning that you do all that
- 42:56Speaker 1: for the girls and for the boy scouts. But I did.
- 43:01Speaker 1: I told them. I say, you keep working and maybe
- 43:04Speaker 1: by the time you're a senior in high school, you'll
- 43:06Speaker 1: be an Eagle Scout, because now the girls can be
- 43:09Speaker 1: Eagle Scouts just like the boys that they think it
- 43:11Speaker 1: used to be called silver Scout. And then one day
- 43:14Speaker 1: somebody in admissions is going to see that and you're
- 43:17Speaker 1: going to get in because you worked so hard and
- 43:20Speaker 1: ask you just makes me feel sick that I've told
- 43:24Speaker 1: them all that and then this happens all that hard
- 43:27Speaker 1: work literally years they're just you know, along with your girls,
- 43:31Speaker 1: they're just in the fifth grade. That would be fifth six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
- 43:37Speaker 1: eight years of hard work to try to impress somebody
- 43:40Speaker 1: in admissions when these parents are just writing a check.
- 43:43Speaker 1: And I think I understand completely the reason you teared up, Nancy,
- 43:46Speaker 1: because now not only do I have the conversation with
- 43:49Speaker 1: my children about hard work pays off and these are
- 43:52Speaker 1: things that can help you get into college. Now I've
- 43:54Speaker 1: had to have the conversation, including last night with my
- 43:57Speaker 1: high school freshman, about hey, it isn't okay to take
- 44:02Speaker 1: the short, easy road, It's not okay to pay your way,
- 44:05Speaker 1: because the conversation now is well, why am I working
- 44:07Speaker 1: so hard when other people aren't? So we have to
- 44:10Speaker 1: take this opportunity to educate our kids about hard work
- 44:13Speaker 1: does pay off. But also I'm relieved that they've caught
- 44:17Speaker 1: some people to prosecute, because I have no doubt this
- 44:20Speaker 1: is not the first time that's happened, but to actually
- 44:23Speaker 1: have evidence to prosecute could help put an into it, Nancy.
- 44:27Speaker 1: And that's what we need to see out And I
- 44:29Speaker 1: could just analyze the feelings of a mom and I
- 44:34Speaker 1: notice it. Macy William Macy, the husband has not been charged,
- 44:38Speaker 1: Felicity Huppan's husband. Just that feeling of willing to do
- 44:44Speaker 1: anything to help them advance in the world. You know,
- 44:49Speaker 1: I had the children late in life, and I'm not
- 44:52Speaker 1: going to be here to help them for the rest
- 44:55Speaker 1: of their lives. Like a lot of other parents are
- 44:57Speaker 1: going to be there well into their forties and their fifties.
- 45:00Speaker 1: I'm not, and I want to do everything I can
- 45:02Speaker 1: to help them now. But this is just, oh, it's
- 45:07Speaker 1: just a dark, dark day. I want to thank Jennifer Brovost,
- 45:13Speaker 1: co founder of New York Private Education Advisory Service, Mark Jerome,
- 45:18Speaker 1: a renowned athletic consultant who guides students interested in playing
- 45:22Speaker 1: varsity in college sports to find the right school for them.
- 45:25Speaker 1: Doctor Kim Metcalfe, author of Let's Build Extraordinary Youth Together.
- 45:31Speaker 1: Dave Max, indicated talk show host, Ashley Wilcot, trial lawyer
- 45:35Speaker 1: judge anchor at Ashley Wilcot dot Com. Jackie Howard in
- 45:40Speaker 1: the studio, Alan joining me from LA. We'll see where
- 45:44Speaker 1: this goes. I've got a feeling this is just the beginning.
- 45:49Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime story signing off goodbye friend,