Lang
12/11/25
A Georgia man convicted in an Eastern Iowa check forgery case has been given a deferred judgment.
Iowa City Police say 36-year-old Mikal McCarty was one of at least six people who used stolen bank information to print and cash or attempt to cash forged checks at various banks around the area in July of 2023.
Investigators say McCarty and his co-conspirators recruited accomplices from homeless shelters and food pantries, paying them $150 a day to attempt to cash forged checks made out to them ranging in amounts from $1,800 to $2,900. The accomplices were given new clothes and burner phones and instructed on how to act and what to say when cashing the checks.
McCarty was initially charged with 1st Degree Theft, Conspiracy to Commit a Non-Forcible Felony, and ten counts of Forgery. If convicted on all charges, he would have faced a maximum of 65 years in prison. But McCarty reached a plea deal in September, and online records now show Judge David Cox gave McCarty a deferred judgment and three years of probation on the Conspiracy charge with all others being dismissed.