Lang
10/22/25
One of two Iowa City business employees accused of tampering with the company’s records has been given a deferred judgement.
Online records show 56-year-old Stephanie Bennett was given the deferred judgment on a charge of Tampering With Records earlier this month. She was given a one-year deferred judgment and one year of probation. 13 other counts of the same offense were dropped.
Bennett was the project coordinator for Hochstedler Building and Development, or HBD. 66-year-old Kevin Hochstedler, who runs the business, still faces 14 Tampering With Records counts and one count of 1st Degree Theft. The charges carry a total maximum sentence of 38 years in prison. Hochstedler has a plea hearing set for Friday.
The alleged victims entered into a construction contract with HBD to build a new residence in Solon that was completed in May. The victims paid HBD in full and were reportedly provided with forged lien waivers from over a dozen subcontractors indicating that HBD had paid them in full. The lien waivers were allegedly emailed to the victims by Bennett between October 30th, 2023 and March 18th, 2024, providing a signature from subcontractor representatives indicating a payment had been made by HBD to them despite Bennett knowing that was not the case.
In total, 14 different false documents were emailed by Bennett showing payments totaling over $116,000. The subcontractor signatures were allegedly determined to be forged.
Hochstedler reportedly failed to pay the subcontractors and did not make any attempts to return the funds to the victims.