A U.S District Judge sentenced a 38-year-old Chula Vista woman to two years behind bars for faking a cancer diagnosis to avoid prison time in another case.
In November 2019, Ashleigh Lynn Chavez pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge admitting that she embezzled more than $160,000 from a former employer, according to court documents. Just before her sentencing, Chavez made a doctor’s note that falsely claimed a biopsy had revealed “cancerous cells” in her uterus and forged the signature of her doctor on this letter
On March 31, 2021, a judge sentenced Chavez to serve 12 months and 1 day in federal prison. As a direct result of the forged doctor’s note she had caused her attorney to submit, she was permitted to remain out of custody for an additional three months so that she could receive medical treatment, according to prosecutors.
Chavez allegedly attempted to avoid paying restitution to the fraud victim because she was to ill to work, prosecutors said,
According to her plea agreement, Chavez hired a new attorney after the sentencing and provided them with additional forged letters from two different San Diego-area physicians.
One forged note attributed to a San Diego-area oncologist, Chavez wrote that “(a) year in prison could be a death sentence for my patient… I highly recommend the chance to allow home confinement or anything else that you deem appropriate rather than a year in prison.”
Two weeks later, she forged a note from the same oncologist stating that “Ashleigh’s cancer, it has in fact metastasized affecting the lymph nodes… I recommend a different approach to her sentencing.”
The U.S. Attorney's Office said one of the doctors previously treated Chavez, but not for cancer, while the other doctor had never heard of her. Both doctors denied writing the letters when contacted by government representatives.
Chavez surrendered to authorities in October to begin serving her term on the fraud case, then pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal obstruction of justice count in connection with the forged doctors' notes.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said Chavez will serve the two-year sentence she received on Tuesday consecutively with her other case.
