"No words can adequately express her remorse and the family's regret for what happened ... She intends to cooperate fully with the police and prosecutors in their investigation of this case ... She hopes to have an opportunity in the future to apologize personally to the children, as well as to their families." That in part was the statement released by the attorney for Chelsea Steele, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader who robbed four girls between the ages of seven and eleven of the money they collected during a fund raiser.
"She is just torn up about what happened," the attorney later explained during a televised interview, "She'd like to express to the children who were involved in this and had to experience it, as well as their parents, that she is extremely sorry for what happened and wants an opportunity down the road to say that to their faces."
Remorse and regret? Yeah, remorse and regret over having been caught. Extremely sorry? Ditto! Just torn up? Yeah, because her ass is in jail. The only expression missing from those phony statements is that Steele made a "mistake." Steele's mother has contacted the victim’s families, offering to repay the stolen money if the charges against her daughter were dropped.
Lawyers for criminals from respectable families are fond of reducing a crime to a mistake. Driving drunk is a mistake. Shoplifting is a mistake. Burglary is a mistake. Joyriding in a stolen car is a mistake. Vandalism is a mistake. And an apology and restitution for those "mistakes" is supposed to make everything OK. God forbid that those "mistakes" would leave the drunk driver, the thief, the burglar, or the vandal with a criminal record.
Let's be very clear on this! What lawyers like to call mistakes are not mistakes - they are crimes, pure and simple. The only mistake the perpetrator made was that he or she got caught.
As a former law enforcement officer, I do not believe that saying I’m sorry and giving back the money makes everything OK. I may be hard-nosed, but when a person commits a crime, there must be a price to pay - and by that I don’t mean making restitution and paying for a lawyer. And that goes double for some spoiled brat from a privileged background.
Here is a report on the robbery:
CHEERLEADER ACCUSED OF ROBBINGCHILDREN
$147 stolen from pool party was to benefit a father’s struggling business
Cox Newspapers
July 9, 2009
ATLANTA — A high school cheerleader is in jail after police say she robbed children at a pool party.
Chelsea Steele, 17, was arrested after she stole a box containing $147 from a group of children, including a wheelchair-confined child, at a neighborhood pool in Marietta, Ga., according to the arrest warrant.
The children were selling T-shirts and hats to benefit a father’s struggling embroidery business when the incident took place on July 3.
After taking the cash, Steele fled the suburban Atlanta subdivision in a white Ford Taurus with three other girls, said Cobb County police spokesman Joe Hernandez. She was arrested later that night and has been in Cobb County Jail since July 4 on felony charges of robbery and a misdemeanor charge of underage possession of alcohol.
A $5,000 bond was set Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether Steele has posted bond.
Calls to her attorney were not immediately returned.
The names of the other girls have not been released because of their age. Charges against them are pending, Hernandez said.
Joe 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.
Green’s family was grilling out with friends Friday when the unknown teens came to the pool. As he returned from his house on an errand, he saw a white car with two teen girls parked outside the pool area, and another teen holding open the gate, which locks when closed. He then saw a girl later identified as Steele talking to his children at their table, he said.
He chatted with the teen and explained why his girls were selling the merchandise, he recalled. But a few minutes after he left their side, he heard shouts that their money had been snatched.
Two children helped identify Steele, who is listed as a varsity sport cheerleader on Sprayberry High’s Web site.
Green said the worst part of the ordeal isn’t the money lost.
"We knew we’d never get the money back. The money isn’t the issue, it’s what they did to our girls.’’
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