A Fort Dodge man was recently sentenced to prison in Greene County District Court.

According to court documents, 47-year-old Mark Mendenhall pled guilty to two Class D Felonies for forgery and two aggravated misdemeanors for identity theft. He was sentenced to five years in prison for each of the felony convictions and two years in prison for each of the misdemeanor convictions. All of the sentences are to run consecutively and concurrently with an unrelated probation violation charge from Polk County.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Jefferson Police Department from November, 2019. Mendenhall was on parole and left a work release program in Des Moines, then stole checks from his employer. He met Health Schultz of Algona and the two wrote forged checks to several businesses in Fort Dodge, Boone, Altoona and Jefferson from September 29th-October 11th. 

Court documents show, the other nine felony forgery and nine aggravated misdemeanors for identity theft, along with other charges were dismissed. It was determined Mendenhall did not have the ability to pay for fines, surcharges, courts costs or attorney fees.