Cheerleader's Friends Charged In Cash Box Theft

((HT: AJC/Cook))

Two young adults and a teenager have been charged with helping a friend steal a cash box containing $147 from two young girls who were trying to raise money to help their father’s struggling business.

Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Department said Katie Leathers and Alexa Michalski, both 18, and a 16-year-old girl, all of Marietta, were charged Friday with being parties to a robbery. All three were booked into Cobb County’s jail.

Michalski was released on $15,000 bond while Leathers was still in custody midday Saturday.

Police did not release the name of the teenager, who was charged as a juvenile. They also did not say whether she had been released.

Telephone numbers for the parents of the three could not be located.

Earlier in the month, 17-year-old Chelsea Alexa Steele ((pictured, thanks AJC.com)), who was a Sprayberry High School cheerleader, was arrested on charges of snatching the cash box from the younger girls’ pool-side stand on July 3, and then getting into a waiting Ford Taurus that drove away.

Joe Greene — father of Sophie, 9, and Sidney, 11 — said his daughters and two of their friends, one of them in a wheelchair, had set up a stand at the pool in the St. Charles subdivision in east Cobb County. They hoped to raise enough money selling patriotic caps and T-shirts to have spending money for the summer and to help his business, JAG Designs.

“They were so excited about this,” Greene said, adding that it was Sidney’s idea to offer caps for $10 and T-shirts for $12.

The sisters told police that Steele acted as if she wanted to buy something and held out $20. But when one of the girls reached for the money, Steele snatched it back, grabbed the cash box and ran.

Greene said one of Steele’s friends was holding open the gate to the pool area so she could reach the waiting car faster. Steele, the friend at the gate and two others in the idling car sped away with the father chasing them.

Steele was arrested July 4 and held in jail for four days before she was released on $5,000 bond. She has pleaded not guilty to the robbery charge.

Pierce said the other three were arrested because they lied to investigators about what happened.

“The stories changed and people were not being forthcoming,” Pierce said.

Greene learned from other teens at the pool that Steele was a cheerleader. Moments earlier, he had heard the friend holding the gate call her by her first name.

Greene said he tracked down Steele by looking up the cheerleaders on the Sprayberry High School Web site and then using her full name to find her on Facebook.com.

“At that time, I was willing to drop the charges,” Greene said. “I didn’t think it would go that far. But Chelsea said she didn’t even know the other three girls. She wasn’t cooperating with authorities. I said, ‘I want all four girls held responsible.’

“If they had ’fessed up ... it wouldn’t go this far. I want them punished.”

Cheerleader's Victims Appear on "Today"- Case Re-Evaluated

((HT: AJC/Provano-Matteucci))

The Cobb County children who were the victims of a poolside theft told a national TV show Friday they thought they could trust the cheerleader who allegedly took their money, but her “sweet” demeanor was “just an act.”

Sidney Green, one of the girls who organized a fundraising sale for her dad’s business, said Chelsea Alexa Steele pretended she wanted to buy a cap or T-shirt from the girls. She held a $20 bill out to the girls, then quickly snatched it back and grabbed a cash box containing $147, Sidney said.

Steele, 17, a cheerleader at Sprayberry High, had been incarcerated at the Cobb County jail since Saturday, when she was arrested on charges of robbery and underage possession of alcohol. She was released on bond Wednesday.

Sidney’s dad, Joe Green, who appeared with the girls on NBC’s “Today,” said “not in my wildest dreams” would he have expected such an incident in East Cobb, where serious crime is a rarity.

He said he was unsure if he wanted to see Steele prosecuted.

“It’s a tough decision,” he said. “I want her to learn a lesson from this.”

The girls said their faith in people had been shaken but was restored when a man who had heard about the incident came by and gave them $200 to compensate for the stolen money.

Police say Steele fled the St. Charles Square subdivision with three other teenage girls in a white Ford Taurus. Investigators this week identified the three girls who were in the car with Steele. They interviewed the teens but have not decided whether to file charges.

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FRIDAY PM UPDATE: Rhonda Cook and Joel Provano of the AJC reveal that the Cobb County Police Department is going to revisit the case.

Cobb County police are re-evaluating some of the information provided by three Cobb County teenagers in the case involving a high school cheerleader who allegedly took money two girls had raised to help their father.

Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Department said Friday other concerns had come up during interviews, and detectives planned to “go back and re-interview” some people, including the three friends of 17-year-old Chelsea Alexa Steele.

“It’s going to be revisited,” Pierce said.

Police: HS Cheerleader Robs Wheelchair-Confined Child

((HT: AJC/Leslie-Matteucci))

Police have not decided if they will charge three teenage girls who were with a Cobb County cheerleader when she allegedly robbed some children.

Chelsea Steele, 17, ((pictured, thanks AJC/Cobb County Police Department)) has been at the Cobb County jail since Saturday when she was arrested on charges of robbery and underage possession of alcohol. A judge granted Steele a $5,000 bond, but she remained in jail Wednesday night, the sheriff’s department said.

Police say Steele stole $147 from some children — including one confined to a wheelchair — at a community pool in Marietta on Friday and then drove off.

This week, investigators identified three other teenage girls who were in the car with Steele. They interviewed the teens, but have not decided whether to file charges, police spokesman Officer Joe Hernandez said Wednesday night.

Joe Green, father of some of the victims, said all of the girls involved should be charged.

“All four should be responsible for this. They fled the scene and I chased them on foot. They need to be disciplined,” Green said Wednesday night.

Steele’s attorney Mike Moran and her parents did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Green said his two daughters, ages 9 and 11, organized the sale of Fourth of July gear to earn summer money and help his company, JAG Designs, which has struggled in recent months.

Steele, a cheerleader at Sprayberry High School, approached the children outside the pool on Sandy Plains Road and acted as if she was interested in making a purchase, Green said.

“She [Steele] spoke to me and said ‘how sweet’ when I explained to her what the kids were doing,” Green said. “I walk away from the table and then she grabbed the money.”

Green said he realized what happened when he heard the children shouting the money had been taken.

Police say Steele and the other girls fled the St. Charles Square subdivision in a white Ford Taurus.

Some of the children later identified Steele as the suspect.

Green said Steele’s mother has since e-mailed him and offered to repay the money if he dropped the charges. He said he hasn’t responded and the teen’s fate hangs in the district attorney’s hands, not his.

“It’s not that she just stole from children. But to have the confidence to do that in front of the parents is pretty shocking,” he said.

Green said he feels the teenagers planned the robbery. His children had distributed fliers advertising the sale the night before.

“I just want these teenagers to realize they have done the a bad thing and learn from it,” he said.