Ex-Southern Cal official gets 6 months in college bribe case

BOSTON (AP) — A former University of Southern California athletics department official who accepted bribes from the ringleader of the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal to help get often unqualified students into the school as sports recruits has been sentenced to six months in prison. Donna Heinel was also sentenced Friday in Boston to two years of probation and was ordered to forfeit $160,000. Her sentencing came just two days after the ringleader, Rick Singer, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, by far the longest sentence in the so-called Operation Varsity Blues scandal that has led to convictions or guilty pleas from more than 50 people.