Judges still handing out jail sentences in Varsity Blues case even though they may very well get reversed

Yesterday, a former Yale women's soccer coach got 5 months:

Prosecutors said Meredith from 2015 and 2018 accepted $860,000 from Singer in exchange for designating the children of wealthy parents as soccer recruits or attempting to facilitate their admission to New Haven, Connecticut-based Yale by other means.

Separately, Meredith also agreed to accept a $450,000 bribe directly from a California businessman without Singer's involvement to help his daughter gain admission.

But it's not clear that the government's theory of fraud will withstand scrutiny in the First Circuit:

A federal appeals court on Monday questioned whether two wealthy fathers convicted in the first "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal trial were prejudiced by the introduction of evidence about misconduct by other parents they did not know.

During oral arguments, members of a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals probed what proof existed to establish former casino executive Gamal Aziz and private equity firm founder John Wilson agreed to participate in a sprawling, nationwide conspiracy.

"Maybe there's evidence of a nationwide conspiracy," U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron told a prosecutor. "You still have to prove evidence that these defendants agreed to be in it."

Fifty-three people have pleaded guilty. One parent was acquitted in June, while a coach who was convicted of accepting bribes recently won a new trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Aziz — a former Wynn Resorts Ltd executive also known as Gamal Abdelaziz — in 2018 paid $300,000 to secure his daughter's admission to the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit.

Prosecutors said Wilson paid $220,000 in 2014 to have his son falsely designated a USC water polo recruit and later in 2018 paid another $1 million to try to secure spots for his twin daughters at Stanford and Harvard universities.

Think about that -- 53 people pleaded guilty... that means defense lawyers, prosecutors, and judges went along with a questionable theory of crime simply because it was too risky to fight.  Our system is in trouble.