Lori Loughlinand her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, made their first court appearance in months in Boston for their alleged involvement in thecollege admissions scandal.

The couple arrived at the courthouse at around 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday and entered through the back door.

The judge warned the couple of the potential risks of having joint counsel, too.

“You need to have the undivided loyalty of counsel,” she said. “Attorneys from the same firm don’t typically represent people who might have a conflict of interest. … If attorneys are in the same firm, they are considered to be the same lawyer.”

One of the attorneys representing Lori and Mossimo took an opportunity during the hearing to defend his clients’ actions, taking exception with prosecutors’ claims and saying that payments were never made to University of Southern California employees and that they believed the donations made to admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer were charitable donations.

According to legal expert James J. Leonard Jr., Esq., their decision comes with one potential downside.

“The risk with any joint defense is that one defendant may be more culpable than another and the less culpable defendant could suffer as a result of a strategy designed to protect that individual,” he explains.

On March 12, the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts indicted Loughlin and Giannulli in the shocking nationwide scam dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. The pair and nearly50 other parents, coaches, exam proctors and admissions counselors are accused of such actions as paying for boosted SAT scores and lying about students’ athletic skills in order to gain them acceptance to elite colleges including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford.

Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly paid $500,000 to Singer to falsely designate daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli, 19, and Isabella Rose Giannulli, 20, as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, though neither actuallyparticipated in the sport.

While 14 defendants, including actress Felicity Huffman, agreed to plead guilty in April, Loughlin and Giannullideclined a plea deal.

“They weren’t ready to accept that,” one legal source said at the time.

Since neither Loughlin nor Giannulli has a criminal record, if they are convicted of the same offenses, the judge will likely hand down identical sentences, Leonard says.

source: people.com