Lori Loughlin, 55, and husband Mossimo Giannulli, 57, will both be headed to prison — but a lawyer says that there’s “no real reason” the couple would have to be behind bars at the same time. “When the court sets their surrender dates is up to the court. There is no real reason they would need to serve the time at the same time,” Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer Edward Molari tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “If a judge is trying to avoid causing unnecessary and unintended complications in their lives one imagines he would at least consider structuring their sentences so that they mostly don’t overlap. They are fairly short sentences so logistically that seems feasible,” he added.
After pleading guilty, Lori was sentenced to 2 months in prison on Friday, Aug. 21, and Mossimo was sentenced to 5 months — but it remains unclear when the pair will have to turn themselves in. “That will be up to the judge, and he will probably want to hear from the lawyers about when that can realistically be accomplished,” Edward explained, noting that “usually it’s between 2 and 6 weeks.” As for the possibility of house arrest, Edward notes that “anything is possible” but that it’s “more likely than not that they do spend at least some of that time at an actual prison.”
Lori and Mossimo follow Felicity Huffman, 57, who was also charged in the scandal and spent two weeks at the Federal Correction Institution in Dublin, CA last fall. Unlike Felicity, Mossimo and Lori originally plead not guilty before changing their tune in May. In addition to prison time for one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, Lori will also be find $150,000 and be required to complete 100 hours of community service. For his part, Mossimo — who was charged with the same in addition to honest services wire and mail fraud — is being fined him $250,000, and also required to serve 250 hours of community service.
Given Lori and Mossimo’s privileged backgrounds, Edward also suggested that they may receive “special treatment” in prison. “There should be no special treatment for celebrity status. History has, however, shown that wealthy and famous prisoners do get assigned to more desirable facilities,” the Boston based lawyer said. “Guards at those facilities make special accommodations, and the bureaucracy in charge of executing their sentence is more solicitous of their concerns than it is for less wealthy and famous people. I would imagine they will get less than the full prison experience that most people caught up in a federal criminal prosecution do,” he also said.