Sarah Cavanaugh, at the center of RI 'stolen valor' fraud case, to be sentenced
Editor's note: For results of the sentencing see our story 'RI woman in 'stolen valor' fraud case sentenced to prison. Here's how long she'll serve.'Sarah Cavanaugh claimed to be so ill as a disabled Marine veteran that she had a caregiver pick up her dog’s droppings for her.
The Purple Heart and Bronze Star that she said she'd earned gained her entry into a California arts program for wounded veterans – over a double amputee.
At the gym, where people heard about her supposed cancer from the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan and how an explosion had left her with brain and dexterity injuries, members dropped to their knees to tie her sneakers.
They performed this act of kindness not for a day, a week or even a month, one gym member explained in a letter to a federal judge, “but for almost five years ... The entire gym family was manipulated.”
These were some of the small, reprehensible ways people were hurt by Cavanaugh’s grand deception of being something and someone she wasn’t, says Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald R. Gendron. “Fraud permeated every aspect of her life, every day, for years, from major events to the everyday and mundane.”
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Where Sarah Cavanaugh's case stands
Last August, Cavanaugh, a 32-year-old former social worker at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center, pleaded guilty to several crimes, having masqueraded as a stricken Marine veteran to swindle more than $250,000 in veterans’ benefits and charitable contributions and exploit the good will of those who helped her.
On Tuesday, Gendron asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. to sentence the East Greenwich woman to up to 70 months in prison, and that is what she received.
“The fact that she misappropriated the awards, combat histories, medical diagnoses and identities of real veterans is reprehensible,” wrote Gendron in a pre-sentencing report, “but the fact that she then used that stolen valor to enrich herself to the detriment of real veterans is simply horrendous.”
In exchange for her guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence in the low end of sentencing guidelines. She could have faced 24 years behind bars.
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Cavanaugh's lawyer says there's more to the story
Cavanaugh’s story of deceit spread quickly online last summer, spawning a kind of viral antipathy toward a young woman who had never served in the military. She’s received death threats, says her lawyer.
Actual veterans are expected at the federal court on Tuesday to stand in unity against what Gendron described as “despicable crimes.”
Cavanaugh’s lawyer, Kensley R. Barrett, says there is more to the story, which is why he says he is asking that Cavanaugh serve 24 months in prison.
In his pre-sentencing report to the court, Barrett said Cavanaugh “did not commit these crimes with malice in her heart or purely for economic benefit. This case and the actions that Ms. Cavanaugh undertook are much more nuanced than what it appears at first glance.”
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While it is understandable “the anger and pain that the case elicits,” said Barrett, “at its core this case is about a troubled woman who committed fraud while wholly underappreciating the hurt that her actions have caused.” Her lies and deceptions “spiraled into something that she could not extricate herself from.”
The government’s recommendation of almost six years years behind bars is designated for violent offenders, career criminals and “unremorseful individuals,” said Barrett. “None of these adjectives apply to Ms. Cavanaugh.”
Said Barrett: “The letters of support by persons who know Ms. Cavanaugh, including victims of her fraudulent scheme, all acknowledge that while they are shocked by her fraud, they know that she is not the monster that she is being portrayed to be.”
What led Cavanaugh to fake military service, commit fraud?
Cavanaugh grew up in Warwick, “in a household marked by unspeakable violence,” wrote Barrett, “and for reasons that are obvious to the court, defense counsel will refrain from further details in this memorandum.”
“Against all odds, however,” Cavanaugh graduated from Rhode Island College with a degree in political science and earned a master’s degree in sociology at Boston College – "a field that interested her and a desire to help others in need, given the trauma that she had experienced as a child.”
At the VA Medical Center, “Cavanaugh began to develop a sort of connection with the veterans that she cared for,” explained Barrett. “This connection stemmed from the trauma that was reported to her by the veterans, and her own specific trauma.”
Veterans drew close to her because they assumed Cavanaugh was one of them, a notion “which she did not dispel,” said Barrett. “She began to fabricate the idea that she was in fact a Marine.”
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How Cavanaugh faked military service, disability
Cavanaugh put much effort into the role.
She bought replicas of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star and wore them in public. She served as commander of VFW Post 152 in North Kingstown. In August 2021 she appeared in full dress Marine uniform and played host at an event dedicating a portion of Route 1 as the Purple Heart Trail.
“No one earns a Purple Heart alone,” she reportedly told attendees, including Gov. Dan McKee. “I earned mine amongst 11 other Marines, all of whom were awarded that medal. Some came home. Some did not. No one came home the same.”
She described herself as "one of those veterans — the ones who wish to fly under the radar, who merely did what was asked ...”
In reality, Gendron said, Cavanaugh did what no one asked and what many would never imagine: steal the medical histories of real veterans – including one who was so afraid she might die he paid her $600 monthly health insurance deductible for years.
Cavanaugh made their ailments hers, and reaped what she could:
From the Wounded Warrior Project: $230,683
From VFW Post 152: $6,146
Travel and tuition to the CreatiVets arts project: $14,972
From the SSG Matthew A. Pucino Memorial Foundation: $10,072
From a GoFundMe page entitled “Help Sarah Win Her Battle": $4,766
She had no trouble asking for help, requesting that one charitable group, Code of Support, write checks to pay her $900 overdue gym membership, cover a $10,000 furnace repair and pay her $2,500 mortgage bill.
Her crimes “were not committed out of sudden passion or opportunity,” said Gendron. “Rather, she defrauded veterans, veterans’ organizations, veterans’ charities, friends and co-workers in a methodical and calculated manner over a period of years ... to the detriment of real veterans who legitimately needed services.”
Defense says what she did will 'follow her for the rest of her life'
In asking for a 24-month sentence – a period below the sentencing guidelines' range – Barrett said Cavanaugh is already paying for her crimes.
She resigned from the VA Medical Center in disgrace, her spouse filed for divorce and “she has received numerous death threats which were reported to U.S. Probation and apparently unsympathetic local law enforcement departments.”
Cavanaugh sold her home, with proceeds of about $85,000 already going to the $294,000 she’s agreed to pay in forfeiture and restitution.
“She will never be able to work in a career field in which she devoted years of schooling to achieve, her standing in the community has been stripped, and her ability to obtain virtually any kind of employment has been diminished,” said Barrett. “These penalties are not insignificant and should sufficiently deter other similarly situated defendants.”
The infamy of what she did, he said, “will follow her for the rest of her life.”
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI stolen valor: Woman posed as disabled Marine, stole from vet groups
