St. Cloud Man Sentenced in Otter Tail County Check Forgery Case

(KNSI) – A St. Cloud man can keep a felony off his record if he completes probation after trying to cash a forged check.

Keith Allen King was sentenced Monday in Otter Tail County District Court on one count of offering a forged check. Judge Kevin M. Miller ordered a stay of imposition under Minnesota law, meaning the felony will be recorded as a misdemeanor conviction if King successfully completes his probation term.

King was given credit for three days already served in jail and is trespassed from Bell Bank in Pelican Rapids, where the theft occured.

The 63-year-old was arrested on Tuesday, November 18th.

King told Pelican Rapids police that he and his employer rode together from St. Cloud. He said his employer dropped the other man in Fergus Falls to cash his check, then dropped King off at the bank in Pelican Rapids and was gone when he came out.

Court documents say the other man told Fergus Falls police that he and his roommate at a homeless shelter in St. Cloud came up to the area to work on a lake cabin. He said he agreed to it because the roommate knew the foreman.

Both men told police they were supposed to be paid a few hundred dollars, but learned at the banks that the checks they were given were for $3,245.20 and $2,775.80, respectively. The owners of the checking accounts were contacted, and both denied having written the checks. The bank employee in Pelican Rapids told police the check there was refused because the signature was photocopied and the writing had been changed.

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