A University student was arrested Saturday and charged with felony theft by taking, according to Athens-Clarke County police.

Jamie Leigh Momeyer, a sophomore from Athens, was charged with taking $500 from her roommate Matthew Waldrop on Aug. 24.

“It’s really unfortunate that it happened,” Momeyer said Monday in a phone interview. “I wasn’t even at my apartment the entire time it happened and I’m getting blamed for it.”

Cathy Brucheit, Waldrop’s mother, said Waldrop was living with Momeyer and her boyfriend, Steven Whalen, when the incident occurred. Waldrop was subleasing the apartment, so his name did not appear on the lease. When the incident occurred, Brucheit was in Athens visiting her son.

“I was coming up to pick up my son for dinner,” Brucheit said Monday in a phone interview. “He was supposed to pay me back $500 for his portion of the rent because his paycheck came in after [rent was due],” she said.

Brucheit said her son left the cash in an envelope in his bedroom around 11 p.m. before he went to work. Waldrop told police that when he came to get it the following day, it was gone. Brucheit said she confronted Whalen and told him he was the primary suspect in the theft. They “came to an instant parting of ways,” she said.

Property manager, Brandon Williams, called Athens-Clarke County police at the time of the incident, wanting three people removed from the property. Matthew Waldrop, Cathy Brucheit and her daughter Shelley Little were barred from the property for two years.

Momeyer said she will plead not guilty to the charges.

“We will see if it is either dropped or taken to trial,” she said.