The mom who left her kids in the car during a job interview could face prosecution.

Social media put a price tag of $100,000-plus on Shanesha Tayor's tears. I thought her story was a bit fishy from the beginning. But her mug shot after being arrested for leaving her toddlers in a hot car spurred an outburst of charity.

Now there's anger because she didn't set up a trust fund for her kids with half of the money, as the court directed her to do.

Maricopa County Attorney's Office wants to reinstate prosecution on child abuse charges. Taylor's fate may hinge on whether she has a good explanation for what happened to the more than $114,700 she received in donations after a mug shot made her famous.

Amanda Bishop, the woman who started the webpage that attracted 4,000 donors on Tayor's behalf, shared her thoughts on Facebook. She said she couldn't explain why Shanesha didn't put the money into trust for the kids.

She also said:

"I do not know why Shanesha appears to be wearing as some of you have said "MK purses", etc. That is not my business nor my place to say. As I know she could have received gifts, could have had it prior, gone on a shopping spree, I have NO idea lol.

As for her saying she can't get a job because of the negative media, throughout the fundraiser I did receive job offers and forwarded them to her. I do not know if she followed up on them.

The accusations of her not being a single mother; Her and the father of her two youngest are back together. He does not work. . . ."

Bishop is a lot more generous than I am.

As I said, I was skeptical from the beginning. Giving Taylor a pass felt a lot like lowering the bar on acceptable standards for parenting. After all, there is no way I would ever have left my baby in a car alone.

But, hey, the story fit so nicely into a narrative about single moms with few options. I was reluctantly swept away by surge of social media support for Taylor.

So now I'm willing to hear the explanation of what happened to all that money.

But it had better be a good one.

Basically, I think we got sucker punched.

facebook sharetwitter shareemail shareemail share
Read or Share this story: