Beverly Hills real estate mogul sentenced in college admissions scandal dies by suicide in July
David Boies (left) arrives at the federal courthouse in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2013, to hear his conviction on charges that he conspired to bribe a high school football coach into steering a wealthy student to an Ivy League college before a prestigious university could get him admitted. (Chris Pizzello/ Associated Press)
By: Richard Weill WNYC
Thursday, July 28, 2013; 10:07 PM EST
Beverly Hills businessman and convicted felon Kenneth W. Starr III killed himself in July after serving four years of his five-year prison sentence for conspiring to bribe a high school football coach into steering a wealthy student to an Ivy League college before a prestigious university could get him admitted to a top college.
Weill spoke with The Villager in July 2013.
1) How did you find out that your son, an aspiring actor, has been convicted of a college admissions scandal?
Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Richard Berman announced Starr’s conviction via written order on April 13, 2013. A copy of his order was sent to me in January 2014. During that process, I learned that his son, a 22-year-old aspiring actor, had been convicted on a single count of conspiring to bribe a university athletic department coach into steering a wealthy student to an Ivy League college.
That was news to me at the time. Starr did not know about his son’s conviction until the written order was served. I learned that my son’s conviction by a jury of his peers in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Thomas Zilly presiding, was final and not subject to appeal.
2) What is in the written order, that Starr made public, about your son’s conviction?
It said Starr had been convicted of conspiring to bribe Stanford University to accept a non-public student from a wealthy family who was ineligible for admission because the student had lied to