Samantha Ketcham (File)
COLLEGE STATION (June 21, 2012)—Samantha Ketcham, 20, the Texas A&M University coed who tried unsuccessfully to become the school’s first female yell leader, has been charged in the theft of two “bait” bicycles on the A&M campus.
A&M police placed the “bait” bicycles around the campus in College Station in an effort to combat bike thefts.
Ketcham was arrested on May 13 after campus police used GPS to track the two bikes to her dorm room, authorities said.
If convicted on the two misdemeanor charges, which prosecutors filed last week, Ketcham could face a jail sentence of as much as six months and could be fined as much as $2,000.
Kecham’s mother Cheryl told KBTX-TV in Bryan in May that her daughter thought the two bikes belonged to friends whom she thought she was helping out by moving the bicycles to her room.
Ketcham remains free on $6,000 bond.
Earlier this year, Ketcham had hoped to be elected to the five-member yell leader group, which A&M has instead of conventional cheerleaders.
The yell leaders have always been men.
In February her quest to become Texas A&M's first female yell leader ended in February when she finished fifth in a race for three places on the squad.
