The former business manager for the Salmon Creek Soccer Club who stole tens of thousands of dollars from the club was given a seven-month sentence Monday. She may be able to serve the sentence through the jail’s work release program, however.
Michelle Lee Steiger, 45, previously pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to three counts of first-degree theft. The club said that Steiger stole about $55,000 over the course of about three years. However, she disputes that amount, and her attorney, Therese Lavallee, said Monday the amount is closer to $18,000 to $20,000.
Steiger had been a volunteer with the club for more than 15 years and more recently served as the business manager for several years. She was responsible for signing up players and collecting their fees, paying club bills and managing the club’s account, according to a probable cause affidavit.
In November 2015, the president of the soccer club told authorities that Steiger was replaced as business manager after parents and vendors complained of numerous financial mistakes and nonpayments. Steiger also had stopped attending board meetings and failed to provide financial reports, the affidavit states.
The board later discovered numerous electronic payments from the club’s bank account to Steiger’s personal bank account. And parents began reporting that they paid cash for their children’s soccer registration, but the children were not signed up as expected, and there was no record of their payment, court records said.
The club’s new business manager found suspicious account activity and noted that there was a significant difference between the cash collections from registration records and the actual cash deposits into the account. There also were several payments to a coach the board didn’t recognize and suspected didn’t actually exist, according to court documents.
A representative from the nonprofit youth organization told the court Monday that Steiger’s actions damaged the club monetarily and its reputation.
Lavallee argued that this was a crime of opportunity and that Steiger had devoted countless hours to the club, which later discussed compensating her — though it doesn’t excuse what she did. Steiger volunteers for a number of other organizations and has done bookkeeping for lawyers in the past, Lavallee said, and there’s no evidence she has ever done anything like this before.
Steiger apologized “to everyone for the whole situation,” and said she believes she simply became overwhelmed. She got “so wrapped up” in what was going on that she didn’t realize how it may affect others, she said.
“This isn’t me,” she added.
Judge Robert Lewis told Steiger he’s concerned about the length of time she committed the theft and said she had a choice. “You decided that’s what you wanted to do,” he said.
Although she qualified for the first-time offender sentencing alternative, Lewis denied her the option and sentenced her to seven months. If she does not qualify for work release — which allows inmates to work outside in the community and be confined when they’re not working — she will serve jail time. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
