A Chula Vista woman already notorious for forging doctors’ notes to fake a cancer diagnosis and dodge prison time was sentenced Thursday to more than two years behind bars for a new scheme: forging a letter claiming she’d been exonerated so she could land a job while under federal supervision. Ashleigh Lynn Chavez, who embezzled more than $160,000 from a former employer years earlier, pleaded guilty to the new fraud charges before being sentenced on October 8.
A Pattern of Forged Documents
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Chavez submitted a forged letter supposedly written by her own defense attorney, claiming she had been exonerated and that prosecutors had dismissed all charges against her. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the fake letter went further, advising Chavez that her court records had been sealed and that she should not share them with anyone. She also submitted a forged recommendation letter supposedly written by the CEO of a nonprofit, the paper reported.
The scheme worked, at least for a while. The company’s background check did not surface her prior convictions, and Chavez worked the job for more than three months, drawing a standard salary, per the same account. She was only fired after a coworker spotted a news release detailing her convictions. Chavez had also been let go from a nonprofit job previously after it discovered her criminal record through its own background check.
Attorney Says Letters Never Influenced Hiring
Chavez’s attorney, Benjamin Kington, told the Union-Tribune that his client created the false letters after struggling to find work because of her convictions. Kington said the letters were never actually read by Chavez’s employer and did not affect her hiring, the newspaper reported.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Chavez used forged documents to obtain a job at a San Diego-area company. She pleaded guilty to new federal charges involving forged letters from a former attorney and former employer while on supervised release, the Justice Department said.
Origins in a $160,000 Embezzlement Case
Chavez’s history with federal courts dates back to 2019, when she pleaded guilty in connection with embezzling more than $160,000 from a former employer. In 2021, she was sentenced to just over a dozen years in federal prison.
Before she could serve that time, Chavez tried a different tactic entirely: faking a cancer diagnosis. Prosecutors said her forged doctor notes claimed her cancer had metastasized to Stage II and warned she could not be exposed to COVID-19, a ploy she used to request home confinement and attempt to pause her monthly restitution payments to her embezzlement victim, according to KPBS.
At her July 2022 obstruction of justice sentencing, Kington filed a memorandum stating Chavez forged the medical notes because she was terrified of being separated from her newborn son, per AP News. FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy condemned the scheme at the time, calling it “appalling” and “an affront to every person fighting that battle,” the Justice Department said.
Back Under Supervision, Back in Trouble
Chavez was on supervised release when she began forging the job-application documents that led to her latest charges.
Judge Battaglia handed down the new sentence Thursday: 14 months in prison for the fraud case, plus a consecutive 12-month sentence for violating the terms of her supervised release from her prior cases, bringing her total new prison exposure to more than two years. The new fraud charge carried a possible penalty of up to 20 years, while Chavez faced up to 10 years in the obstruction case, according to the Justice Department — though her new sentence fell well below those possible penalties.
