Former Staunton 911 dispatcher pleads guilty to taking out $120,000 in fraudulent loans

By Cleve Wiese

Published: June 9, 2008

A former Staunton Police Department employee pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that she fraudulently obtained around $120,000 in student loans using the identity of her ex-husband’s uncle.
Cynthia D. Forsman, 39, of Stuarts Draft, took out four separate loans from the non-profit Educational Resources Institute between August 2002 and January 2005, according to court documents. In each case, she used the name and financial information of Bobbie R. Synder, 75, of Fishersville.
Over the three-year period, Forsman - then working as a 911 dispatcher - drew on the loans 31 times, forging Synder’s signature on each occasion, Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Robertson said. Some of the money was spent on online classes through the University of Phoenix, he said. The remainder went towards bills and family expenses.
Snyder said he agreed in 2001 to cosign for a student loan to help Forsman, who was married to his nephew at the time, pursue a bookkeeping degree. Forsman and his nephew divorced a short time later, Snyder said.
In August 2007, Snyder said he started getting phone calls from banks offering to consolidate his loans.
“I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” he said. “Then I figured out she had been signing my name.”
After hiring a lawyer, Snyder contacted police and began notifying the involved financial institutions of the fraud. The process was unsettling, he said.
“It floored me,” he said. “The money she got in those loans, there’s no way I could pay it off - it’s worth more than my house. I’d be paying it off the rest of my life.”
During a hearing in Staunton Circuit Court, Forsman pleaded guilty to four felony charges of obtaining money by false pretenses and 31 felony charges of forgery. Judge Humes J. Franklin ordered her to pay $120,000 in restitution and released her on bond pending the completion of pre-sentencing report.