RI woman sentenced in 'stolen valor' case asks to be released from prison. Here's why.

PROVIDENCE – The former North Kingstown VFW commander caught in a "stolen valor" case, posing as a seriously ill Marine veteran and scamming more than $250,000 from charity groups, is seeking to be released from prison.

Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, 32, asked to be freed to her mother’s house in North Kingstown, saying she is one of 18 women who have been isolated for days in a prison visiting room due to COVID without access to food or water.

“I am requesting compassionate release due to my current isolation (with 17 other women) in which I have not been given access to food or water,” Cavanaugh wrote to U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr.

No food or water, and only 17 rolls of toilet paper

Cavanaugh writes that she and the other women went without water for more than 12 hours, didn’t receive food for two days after being isolated starting on Dec. 7, and had not received medication. She said they were given 17 rolls of toilet paper and directed to make it last for five days.

“The conditions in the visiting room are poor,” she said in a letter signed by Cavanaugh and the other women.

They are being denied access to phone and email as well, she said.

More: North Kingstown VFW commander resigns amid allegations that she faked service

“Several women are experiencing anxiety, feelings of being trapped, and crying. Psychology has not come to see us,” she said.

Federal judges can grant people compassionate release if they find “extraordinary and compelling” reasons. Cavanaugh is serving at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

McConnell directed federal prosecutors to respond by Dec. 20 to Cavanaugh’s request.

Federal sentencing changes could impact sentence

McConnell sentenced Cavanaugh to 70 months in prison in March after she pleaded guilty to falsifying military service records; false use of military medals; aggravated identity theft; and fraudulently collecting more than $250,000 in veterans’ benefits and charitable contributions through wire fraud.

Earlier this month, McConnell appointed a federal public defender to represent Cavanaugh after learning of changes to the federal sentencing guidelines that extend leniency to first-time offenders who have committed nonviolent offenses, such as Cavanaugh.

Stolen medical files, false documents

Cavanaugh used the medical files of real veterans she met as a social worker at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center to create her own bogus documents of a decorated and disabled veteran.

She submitted the paperwork to groups such as the Wounded Warrior Project and Code of Support to qualify for financial help for everything from paying her mortgage and grocery bills to a gym membership, yoga classes and furnace repairs. A GoFundMe page entitled “Help Sarah Win Her Battle” raised $4,766.

Cavanaugh, who never served in the military, first registered as a veteran with the Wounded Warrior Project in April 2016 by submitting a falsified discharge document.

She represented herself as a Marine wounded in combat by the detonation of an improvised explosive device in Iraq who developed cancer as a result of inhaling particulate matter following the explosion and in burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In total, Cavanaugh collected between $250,000 and $550,000 from organizations such as the Wounded Warrior Project, the VFW Post she once led, Code of Support, and the man whose Stage IV cancer records she forged as her own to persuade donors to give, Assistant U.S Attorney Ronald R. Gendron said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI stolen valor case: Sarah Cavanaugh asks to be released from prison