Niki Williams, 46, a former employee of the Houston Independent School District, has been sentenced with one year of probation for her role in the 2019 “Operation Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal.

The college admissions scandal rocked the nation last year when wealthy parents, including the likes of fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and his wife actress Lori Loughlin, were caught using bribes and doctoring photographs in order to get their children into elite universities across the nation. Williams is just one of over 50 individuals involved in the scandal.

Williams served as a college entrance exam proctor at the public high school she worked. During the exams, Williams took bribes from the admissions consultant, Rick Singer, to give undeserving kids a competitive advantage in scoring higher on their college entrance exams.

Williams' role in the scheme included allowing a man named Mark Riddle to take the ACT and SAT tests in place of students whose parents initiated the bribes. When the scandal broke out, Singer was quickly identified as the ringleader of this scheme. The scheme included a host of wealthy parents who paid large sums of money to have their children's test scores doctored. Many parents also paid for falsified images of their children participating in sports they had never previously participated in.

In late September, Williams pleaded guilty to her charges, which included one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and honest services wire fraud and mail fraud. Williams' charges came with a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

Prosecutors in her case pushed for a sentence of at least six months behind bars. However, Williams' attorney argued that prison time was not a warranted consequence of her actions. The US District Court Judge who heard the case, Indira Talwani, agreed with the defense, stating that a felony conviction and the loss of her role as an educator with the school district was punishment enough. Judge Talwani shared during the hearing which took place via video conference, “Certainly you did this for the money, but this wasn’t any pattern of self-interest in any kind of a larger scale. It makes me see this as a bad mistake you made — a very bad mistake — but not something that would dictate that you would be likely to ever do something like this again.”

In addition to her one-year probation, Williams will be required to pay back the $12,500 she received as part of her involvement in the scheme.

High-Profile Parents Serve Jail Time

Along with wealthy parents otherwise out of the public spotlight, a fair amount of high-profile parents were also involved in the case, including actresses, celebrities, and business people.

Felicity Huffman, who is most notably recognized for her role in Desperate Housewives, was one such actress involved in the case. She was also sentenced by Judge Talwani to 14 days behind bars after she paid $15,000 to have her daughter's test scores doctored. In addition to her sentence, Huffman was required to pay $30,000 in fines, participate in 250 hours of community service, and undergo one year of supervised release.

The most notable celebrity parents in the scandal include Giannulli and Loughlin. Both have also been accused of having spent around half-a-million dollars to get their daughters Olivia Jade and Isabelle Rose into The University of Southern California. Both parents were sentenced with jail time, with Loughlin coming up to the close of her two-month jail sentence while her husband is currently serving a five-month jail sentence.

In an email that was released by Williams' attorney, Eric Tennen, Tennen says that Williams “regrets the harm she has caused her school, her students and the companies that trusted her.”

Both Mark Riddle and Rick Singer have pled guilty to their charges in the scheme, although neither has been sentenced yet.