Boston (CNN) Felicity Huffman broke down crying before a federal judge Monday after she pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to a fake charity that facilitated cheating when her daughter took the SATs for college admission.

When she appeared in court in Boston, prosecutors recommended a sentence of four months prison time for the "Desperate Housewives" TV star for her role in the college admissions scandal. They also suggested a $20,000 fine and 12 months of supervised release for the charge, which is a felony.

She will be sentenced September 13.

The charity was associated with Rick Singer, who has confessed to helping wealthy parents cheat on standardized tests for their children. Singer also bribed college coaches to falsely designate students as recruited athletes, smoothing their path to admission, a criminal complaint says.

"I had no knowledge of Mr. Singer paying (others)," Huffman said Monday before crying. "Everything else (prosecutors) said I did, I did."

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