Woman fakes cancer with forged doctors’ notes to avoid prison in California, feds say
A 37-year-old woman tried getting out of her prison sentence by faking a cancer diagnosis in California, federal officials said.
Ashleigh Lynn Chavez pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge on Friday, April 1, the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of California said in a news release.
Chavez is accused of submitting multiple forged doctors’ notes to prosecutors stating she had uterine cancer after she was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison on a conspiracy charge, the news release states.
The conspiracy conviction came after Chavez was accused of embezzling more than $160,000 from a past employer, the release states.
An attorney for Chavez did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
At her sentencing hearing in April 2021 for the conspiracy charge, Chavez provided her attorney with a doctor’s note that said a biopsy sample taken from her uterus came back positive for cancerous cells, according to the criminal complaint.
Her attorney believed it was a real doctor’s note and submitted it to prosecutors for leniency, the release states.
Instead of beginning her prison sentence at the end of her hearing, Chavez didn’t have to turn herself in for an additional three months, the complaint states.
Chavez got a new attorney and submitted another forged note from a second doctor in May 2021, according to the complaint.
This note included “Ashleigh has limitations due to uterine cancer and future need for radiation,” the complaint shows.
Chavez submitted numerous other fake doctors’ notes that claimed her health was deteriorating and her cancer was worsening, which pushed her self surrender date farther, the complaint shows.
One note urged the court to allow Chavez to serve her sentence in home confinement so she could receive treatment, the complaint shows.
“(A) year in prison could be a death sentence for my patient. Her exposure to the Delta variant of COVID-19 would compromise her health tremendously,” one note urged the sentencing judge.
Both doctors told government officials they did not write any of the letters Chavez submitted, the news release states. Chavez was a patient for one doctor, but the second doctor did not know her, the release states.
Chavez began serving her first sentence on Oct. 4, 2021, the complaint states.
“This defendant, already convicted of one fraud, worked for months to commit additional frauds on the federal court,” United States Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman said. “While her dishonesty delayed payment of her debt to society, it will cost her still more time in prison.”
She will be sentenced for the obstruction of justice charge on June 27.
Chavez faces 10 years in prison.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Woman fakes cancer with forged doctors’ notes to avoid prison in California, feds say."
