Over two years after being found guilty of bank fraud and other offenses alongside her husband, Julie Chrisley saw a major development amid her efforts to appeal the case. The former Chrisley Knows Best star’s conviction was ultimately overturned (leading to a brief response from daughter Savannah). There are still a few variables at play when it comes to Julie’s situation, but this still marks a win for her and her legal team. In the aftermath of the court’s decision, the family’s lawyer has not weighed in on when he expects the matriarch to be home.
It was the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that reached the decision to overturn the ex-reality TV star’s conviction. The verdict was decided upon because there was reportedly no sufficient evidence to prove she was heavily involved in the financial scheme at the center of the case. As a result, Julie Chrisley’s case is officially going to be handed down to a lower court, where her sentence will be adjusted. All the while, the convictions of husband Todd and their accountant, Peter Tarantino, were upheld by the three-judge panel.
Jay Surgent, one of the family’s attorneys, has been providing updates on behalf of his clients for some time now. The lawyer spoke to RadarOnline after the court’s decision was made known and noted that this is “a big, big deal.” With that, he mentioned that the aim is for Mrs. Chrisley to be back home as early as “next spring or summer.” So that thinking would suggest that the mother of three could only spend one more year in prison. That’s not a sure thing at this point, though Surgent also told the outlet that, at the very least, Chrisley’s altered sentence might be “significantly knocked off by 1-2 years.”
At this time, Julie Chrisley remains in Lexington Medical Center in Kentucky, where she’s been serving time. Her original sentence was seven years, but her prison time was reduced by 14 months in September 2023. With her overturned conviction, Jay Surgent is confident that Chrisley is “looking at a reduced sentence.” He also says that the ex-reality TV star will serve out the last six months to a year of her sentence in a halfway house that would theoretically be close to her home. With that living situation, she’d have the ability to leave to see her family, before returning to the facility every evening.
Plenty of people – both insiders and members of the Chrisley family – have had a lot to say about Todd and Julie’s prison stints. Daughter Lindsie said that the two had been “welcomed with open arms” to prison. However, sources claimed that Julie wasn’t doing well behind bars and that she had essentially “broken down.” Savannah Chrisley also claimed that Julie was facing down snakes in her living space and didn’t have access to air conditioning. She made less-than-positive claims about her father’s prison setup as well. The prison bureau eventually responded to the allegations and, though it didn’t provide specifics on the facilities, it shot down Savannah’s assertions.
Speaking of Savannah, the podcast and media personality has been aiming to provide support for her parents amid their incarceration. She’s also been working with the legal team on their appeal efforts. It was Savannah who announced during Thanksgiving 2023 that her parents’ oral arguments would be heard during a hearing this past April. More recently, after her mom’s conviction was overturned, she shared a photo of a physical copy of the decision and captioned it, “The fight never ends.”
Ahead of Julie Chrisley’s conviction being overturned, Savannah said she hoped her parents would be back home this summer. That didn’t pan out as she expected but, if Jay Surgent’s prediction comes to pass, she may not be in prison much longer.
