Judge Says Teresa Giudice's 'Disrespect For The Court' Is Why She Was Given A Prison Sentence

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice could have escaped prison time if she had just done what the judge and investigators into her bank fraud crimes had asked of her.

During Thursday's sentencing of Giudice and her husband Giuseppe, aka Joe, Judge Esther Salas told her that she had considered handing her a sentence of just probation, but her cavalier attitude toward filing her financial disclosure was the lone factor in her decision to sentence the mother of four to 15 months in prison.

"I will say on the outset, I'm going to focus on what I didn't say to your husband -- that all of the false declarations, wire fraud, and bank fraud is still your fault," Salas told the reality star in the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey during closing statements, according to Us Weekly.

"For a moment, I thought about probation until I read the government's report. What you did in the financial disclosure really sticks in my craw. It's what the court has a problem with. It shows blatant disrespect for the court."

Salas added that Giudice's failure to list numerous high-value items in the disclosure, including furniture and three vehicles, led her to believe that the star has no respect for "the laws of this country."
"Getting this financial information that I need to judge this case was like pulling teeth," Salas added, "it was the most difficult in all my years as a judge and as a lawyer."

Even with the one-year-plus prison sentence, the judge was lenient enough to allow the Giudices to serve their sentences back to back so that their children will have one parent with them at all times.

Teresa will begin her prison sentence on January 5, 2015, while husband Joe, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison, will head to the clink upon her release.

"Mr. Giudice was the captain and he will have to live with the sentence I gave him," the judge said of the couple's sentences. "The first mate deserves a little bit of a break. You, quite frankly, display genuine remorse

"At the end of the day, I think you finally got it. You finally woke up. I think a slight variance is warranted."

Despite the turmoil in their lives, the show must go on -- Teresa will film a "Real Housewives" reunion show and the couple will sit down for an interview with Andy Cohen on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live" on Monday (Oct. 6).