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Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have called for the college bribery case to end and all charges against them to be dropped, The Associated Press reports.
What’s happening:
- Loughlin, Giannulli and other parents charged in the scandal want the case dropped, saying that prosecutors displayed “extraordinary” misconduct during the case.
- Defense teams representing Loughlin and other parents said the case “cannot stand because investigators bullied their informant into lying and then concealed evidence that would bolster the parents’ claims of innocence,” according to The Associated Press.
- The lawyer wrote in a new filing: “The extraordinary government misconduct presented in this case threatens grave harm to defendants and the integrity of this proceeding. That misconduct cannot be ignored.”
The latest on the case
- Loughlin and Giannulli are set to take the stand on Oct. 5, facing accusations that they paid $500,000 in bribes so their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli, would be crew team recruits for the University of Southern California. The couple has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
- Judge Nathaniel Gorton issued a brief earlier in March that said the trial would not be delayed because of the coronavirus, according to The Boston Herald.
- Gorton wrote: “This judicial officer hereby determines that all established pretrial deadlines in the above-captioned case continue to apply. Any motion for an extension of time will be considered on an individualized basis and granted only for good cause shown.”
- But Harry Nelson, managing partner of Los Angeles-based health care law firm Nelson Hardiman, told Fox News the trial could be delayed.
- Nelson: “We are moving into uncharted territory with COVID-19. From high-profile cases like Lori Loughlin’s to the everyday criminal, civil, family court matters, this is a new world. Lawyers, court clerks, jurors see themselves as sitting ducks until we close down the courts.”