TRIDELPHIA –A criminal complaint has been filed against a former Highlands Sports Complex employee for allegedly attempting to steal nearly $29,000 from customers who rented facilities at the complex.

Kelly Michelle Clutter, 46, of Wheeling has been charged with one count of fraudulent schemes, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ohio County Magistrate Court. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 6 before Ohio County Magistrate Tom Howard. She initially appeared in court on the charge May 20 and posted $30,000 bond.

An Ohio County Sheriff’s Office corporal took the initial report regarding Clutter allegedly fraudulently taking payments from the facility’s customers from the Highlands Sports Complex on June 10, 2024.

Clutter was the Food and Beverage Hospitality Manager at the Complex from April 2021 until her termination in June 2024. She was responsible for scheduling and collecting payments for birthday parties at the Complex.

According to the complaint, Sports Complex General Manager Harvey Greenidge began receiving customer complaints that their credit cards were being charged multiple times, which launched an internal investigation.

Greenidge reported receiving several customer receipts for which a Square account was used to pay for services. The Sports Complex does not utilize the Square application for any type of payment, Greenidge told authorities.

Ohio County Sheriff’s Lt. Nicole Seifert was provided with receipts and information from the Sports Complex and completed multiple search warrants for Clutter’s Square accounts. Multiple accounts allegedly registered to Clutter, along with her date of birth and Social Security number, were discovered. These accounts allegedly had several different names associated with them, such as Highlands HSC, Highlands SC, Account Services, Highlands and Highlands Sports Complex.

After reviewing the transactions on the Square accounts, multiple transactions were discovered for payments that allegedly listed descriptions of “birthday party balance,” “birthday deposit,” and “party deposit.” The transactions also allegedly listed card numbers, transaction dates, transaction entry methods, payment success and some payment IP address information.

Seifert reviewed the card number information with Greenidge and located 77 transactions in which customers’ cards were allegedly used on Clutter’s Square accounts to pay for birthday parties. At the same time, the Sports Complex did not receive payment at all.

There were a total of 34 customer cards allegedly located on the Square accounts of Clutter, many of which were charged multiple times. Of those 77 transactions, there were 47 that were allegedly successfully charged for a total amount of $18,584.78, and 30 that were allegedly attempted to be charged but were unsuccessful for a total amount of $10,125.92

Seifert also found a bank account with Bancorp allegedly linked to Clutter in the Square account information. The deposits made from each Square account were compared to the deposits made to Clutter’s Bancorp account, and it was found that Clutter had allegedly successfully deposited a total of $14,766.76 from all Square accounts that were used to take payment for birthday parties to her own personal Bancorp banking account.

These transactions allegedly occurred over a time period of December 2023 until she was terminated from the complex in June 2024.

Greenidge declined to comment on the case.

Criminal defense attorney Shane Mallett, who represents Clutter, declined to comment on the complaint because it is an active criminal case.