MASON CITY – Mark Hoffman, age 50, of 115 16th Street SE in Mason City, turned himself in at the Cerro Gordo County Law Enforcement Complex shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday night. Hoffman had been wanted on an aggravated misdemeanor charge of violation of the sex offender registry. He remained in custody long enough to post bond and promise to appear in court.
Mark Hoffman is listed as a tier 3 sex offender on the Iowa State Sex Offender Registry stemming from an incident that started in a bar parking lot in Mason City in August of 1995. Kenneth Sharp and Mark Hoffman both where arrested that August for 1st degree kidnapping and raping of an adult female at knife point. Before Hoffman’s trial he entered a voluntary guilty plea, instead pleading guilty to a lesser crime of aiding and abetting sexual abuse 3rd degree, receiving a 10 year prison sentence.
Kenneth Sharp went to trial and was found guilty of the original charge of 1st degree kidnapping, a class A felony. Sharp received a sentence of life in prison for that crime. In 2008 Kenneth Sharp tried appealing his conviction and the Iowa State Court of Appeals affirmed that conviction. He remains in prison serving a life sentence.
Following an investigation in November 2005, Mark Hoffman was charged with aggravated domestic assault resulting in injury and 3rd degree kidnapping. The charges stemmed from an incident in which he was alleged to of held a woman in her apartment over a weekend until she escaped and called law enforcement. He was found guilty this time with lessor crimes of 2nd offense domestic assault and false imprisonment. Mark Hoffman received 3 years in prison on these convictions.
Mark Hoffman is currently out on bail pending further court action.
Subject is innocent until proven guilty.
