A U.S. Postal Service employee who faked cancer, in order to work from home and claim hundreds of hours in sick leave, has pleaded guilty.
Caroline Zarate Boyle, 60, of Highlands Ranch, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to presenting a forged writing to the United States with the intent to defraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado.
Boyle pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore.
Boyle was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on March 16. She is scheduled to be sentence on July 25.
After not being selected for a promotion, Boyle told her supervisor that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, when in fact she did not have any cancer. She then began to take substantial amounts of sick leave.
Boyle used the ruse for about 20 months, to support both unwarranted sick leave and unwarranted accommodations allowing her to work part-time or work from home five days a week.
Boyle fabricated four notes, from two doctors, indicating she was being treated for cancer. Investigators determined she was not a patient of either doctor.
She planned to use the fake illness until her scheduled retirement in April 2017, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. Boyle was planning to take a post-retirement cruise in Hawaii.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General. Boyle could be sentenced up to 10 years in federal prison and fined up to a $250,000.