Julio Cortez/AP
The 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' will start looking more like 'Lockdown' now that reality TV stars Joe and Teresa Giudice are going to prison.
A federal judge in Newark provided the latest plot twist Thursday when she sentenced hot-tempered Teresa to 15 months in prison and ordered the couple to pay restitution of $414,588 for tax fraud and conspiracy.
Judge Esther Salas slapped Teresa with the stiff sentence after turning down a request that she do her time at her tacky Towaco, N.J. mansion - and after she sentenced Joe to 41 months in prison.
Minutes earlier, Teresa broke down in tears and shed her tough girl TV persona and told the judge she was terrified about going to jail.
'I'm not gonna deny it, I'm so scared, I'm really scared,' she said. 'I'm a good woman of faith and heritage.'
Sobbing hard now, Teresa added, 'This is not how I was raised. I will make this right, your honor.'
Teresa, who faced up to 27 months behind bars, will do her 'Orange is the New Black' stint first so Joe can take care of their four daughters.
Then Joe will do his time, under a deal worked out with the judge.
In a brief statement, Joe apologized for his actions and promised 'to be a better person.'
'I stand here humiliated before the court and society and my family and society,' he said.
Salas credited the burly builder for good deeds like helping people rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.
'I think you deserve some credit for the life and good things you've done,' the judge said. But 'you are going to get a jail sentence, sir.'
Earlier, Salas seemed ready to throw the book at them both, at one point yelling about the 'glaring omissions' in their presentencing financial disclosure forms.
'They had an obligation to be transparent and candid and open with the court, and I don't think I got that,' Salas said after ticking off a list of cars, recreational vehicles, home furnishings and construction equipment that were logged in documents to the feds but not reported to the probation office. 'I want to understand the disconnect.'
Salas especially wanted to know why the couple listed just $25,000 in furnishings for their $3 million home on the forms while reporting $60,000 in furnishings during their 2009 bankruptcy filing.
'Mr. Giudice has no concept what items are worth what,' his lawyer, Miles Feinstein, said.
Feinstein added that the 'Housewives' production company trucks in extra furniture when they're filming in the house.
Asked why Teresa declared no jewelry on the forms, her lawyer said she wears costume jewelry that is not worth much.
As the usually gabby Giudices stood mute, Salas was reminded that they pulled this kind of stunt before.
Bill Denver/for The New York Daily News
'It's the same pattern of obstruction and dishonesty and manipulation that they showed in the bankruptcy case,' prosecutor Jonathan Romankow told the judge.
Feinstein blamed the reporting lapses on the death of his client's dad in June.
'He hasn't been the same person,' Feinstein said as both Joe and Teresa began crying. 'That was his best friend.'
The couple pleaded guilty in March to hiding assets from bankruptcy creditors and submitting phony loan applications to get some $5 million in mortgages and construction loans.
In a bid for leniency, Teresa, 42, insisted in court papers she was not the demanding witch she portrays in the Bravo series.
'The image is little more than a carefully crafted fiction, engineered by Bravo TV through scripted lines and clever editing,' the papers state.
Feinstein told the court Joe was a generous, self-made man and nothing like 'the Housewives Joe.'
When Joe does get out of jail he might wind up with a one-way ticket back to Italy. He was brought to the U.S. as an infant and is not an American citizen.
Despite their troubles, the Giudices are still riding in style. They arrived in court in a white Mercedes Benz GL450 with tinted windows.
It was not clear if they owned the car.
The two pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and three types of bankruptcy fraud.
Joe also pleaded guilty to failing to file a tax return for 2004, although he has acknowledged he didn't file taxes on income of approximately $1 million between 2004 and 2008.
Andrew Coppa / Splash News/Andrew Coppa / Splash News
The Giudices may still have a $13 million bill to pay.
The two had petitioned the court to settle their 2009 bankruptcy case, but the docket states 'Discharge Denied' and the case was closed on Sept. 29.
Trustee John Sywilok and the couple's lawyer did not immediately respond to emails seeking clarification.
In a preview for the sixth season of America's favorite low-rent reality show, the Giudices visited a psychic.
'I sense things are going to be fine for you,' a psychic medium tells Teresa. 'Your husband, I'm not so sure about.'
It turned out the psychic was wrong.
With Dareh Gregorian
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
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