SAN DIEGO (AP) — One notice submitted to the federal choose sentencing a 38-year-old California woman for embezzlement claimed {that a} biopsy had revealed “cancerous cells” in her uterus. Another indicated that she was present process a surgical process, and her most cancers had unfold to the cervix. Yet one other letter warned she “cannot be exposed to COVID-19” due to her fragile state.
But federal officers say the notes and most cancers had been all pretend, and now Ashleigh Lynn Chavez is headed to prison for 3 times as lengthy. The courtroom this week added a further two years to her preliminary, one-year prison sentence.
The pretend declare of getting most cancers stored Chavez out on bond from the time of her responsible plea in 2019 to embezzling greater than $160,000 from her former employer via her sentencing listening to on March 31, 2021. The notes then purchased her a further three months of freedom by the choose who believed she was getting medical therapy, in accordance to the U.S. Attorney’s workplace for the Southern District of California.
All advised, Chavez was in a position to avoid being locked up for six months, federal officers mentioned.
Chavez’s legal professional, Benjamin Kington, mentioned in a sentencing memorandum that Chavez was “terrified” about being separated from her new child son, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The notes additionally claimed she was too ailing to work and couldn’t make restitution funds to her former employer.
Two totally different attorneys employed by Chavez believed the notes had been genuine and submitted them to the courtroom, in accordance to federal officers.
By August 2021, the notes solid by Chavez had been asking the courtroom to allow her to serve time in dwelling confinement. In one solid notice, attributed to a San Diego-area oncologist, Chavez wrote that “(a) year in prison could be a death sentence for my patient.”
Federal authorities contacted the docs named within the letters who denied writing them, although Chavez had been a affected person of one of many physicians, in accordance to federal officers.
“This defendant went to appalling lengths to avoid her initial prison sentence by falsifying medical documents to claim she had cancer. This offensive conduct is an affront to every person fighting that battle,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy mentioned in a press release.