“Real Housewives of New Jersey” couple Teresa and Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice were both sentenced to time in federal prison on Thursday October 2nd in a Newark, New Jersey courtroom after pleading guilty to mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud. Judge Ester Salas accused the couple of omitting assets on financial disclosure forms that should have been turned in by March, but the couple’s legal aide didn’t turn them in until August. These documents omitted trucks and other construction equipment. As part of the plea agreement, Teresa pleaded guilty to four of the counts against her. Joe pleaded guilty to five of the counts against him. These include failure to file federal income tax returns. With the plea agreement Joe could have been sentenced 37-46 months in prison, and Teresa could have been sentenced up to 21-27 months. That Thursday morning Judge Salas sentenced Joe 41 months in jail and Teresa 15 months. The judge is allowing the couple to stagger their sentences so one parent will be home with their four younger daughters: Gia, 13, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 8, Audriana, 5. Judge Salas is also allowing the couple to spend the holidays with their children, not demanding Teresa surrender in until Jan. 5th 2015. After Teresa completes her sentence Joe will begin his.
Former friend and castmate of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, Kim Granatell was not shy about her feelings regarding Teresa while on the show, and she’s still not shy now after the cameras stopped rolling. During a long conversation with Kim she explained to us what she felt about Teresa from the moment she met her, and how she knew that Tersea would end up in prison.
Toni: What is your reaction to hearing the news of your former castmates Teresa and Joe Giudice’s prison sentence?
Kim G: Listen, I knew she was going to go down, it was just a matter of when.
Toni: You recently put out these strongly worded tweets regarding Teresa and her legal situation, does the motivation to put out those tweets come from the fact that you are extremely real, and you feel too many people were sympathizing for Teresa, so you wanted to show how you really feel, what made you tweet those words?
Kim G: Yes, first of all, I did tweet like that. Second of all, when we were filming the reunion show, Teresa said something to me that I will never forget, I think it was because me, and Danielle, former cast member, were fighting so much. She looked at me and said, “You’re pathetic!” And I looked at her and said, “You’re going to eat those words one day, remember that.” So now that’s what I write. Pathetic is a word that I just don’t like, it’s not in my book. I am not pathetic!
Toni: What makes me upset about this whole things is their four daughters. They had to have known that their decisions would affect their daughters. You have three children, so as a parent that probably upsets you as well.
Kim G: Listen, this is what brought them down. They were on a television show and they were flashing cash. Bingo. My friend who is also an attorney, Monica Chacone, appeared on the show with me said, “As soon as I saw that I called the attorney general’s office right away. Don’t let these people fall through the cracks, you better watch them.” Bingo! Monica started it all.
Teresa and Joe Giudice followed up their prison sentencing with an interview on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” on Bravo, Monday, October 6th, and stated they didn’t know how they could have been omissions on documents. Teresa also didn’t know why their legal team suggested they take the plea deal. Teresa’s seemingly lack of knowledge didn’t stop “frenemy” Kim G from sharing her thoughts about that with the Twitter world. Teresa and Joe could maybe learn something from Granatell’s tweets. She stated on Twitter, “ Don’t know what a plea deal means? It’s called find out!”
Photo Creds: Dave Kotinsky/ Getty Images