The fashion designer asks to be allowed to serve the remainder of his 5-month prison sentence at home after spending nearly two months in solitary confinement due to COVID-19.
- Jan 22, 2021
AceShowbiz - Lori Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli has faced a roadblock in his attempt to return home early. The fashion designer, who is currently serving his time in jail for his involvement in the college admissions bribery scandal, has got an opposition from U.S. attorneys for his request to serve the remainder of his five-month sentence at home.
U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling expressed his stance in Mossimo's plea through a statement filed on January 19. "The government respectfully submits this opposition to defendant Mossimo Giannulli's motion to reduce his sentence," he said in the statement obtained by Fox News.
He explained, "Giannulli contends that the measures taken by the Bureau of Prisons protect him from the COVID-19 pandemic have been 'far more extreme' than what the Court contemplated in imposing sentence, and that his sentence should, as a result, be reduced by more than half."
The U.S. attorney added that while he acknowledged Mossimo's condition in jail, he claimed, "This possibility was not unforseeable at the time Giannulli was sentenced, however, and it does not provide a basis to reduce the sentence that this Court concluded was just and appropriate."
He went on arguing that "any reduction in Giannulli's sentence would be widely publicized, thereby undermining the deterrent effect of the sentence the Court imposed," and thus suggested that "the Court deny Giannulli's motion to modify his sentence to home confinement."
Mossimo now has to await court verdict on his request.
Mossimo's attorneys previously revealed that their client had spent nearly two months in solitary confinement at The Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc in California since he began his sentence on November 19, 2020. He thought that he would be released after completing the mandatory two weeks isolation required amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but he remained to be placed in a small, single cell after exposure to other inmates with COVID-19, though he tested negative numerous times.
The attorneys claimed the 57-year-old was only allowed three short 20 minute breaks per week to shower. "The toll on Mr. Giannulli's mental, physical, and emotional well-being has been significant," his attorneys claimed in their emergency motion. He was finally transferred to a minimum-security camp on January 13.
