A new perspective on the heartbreaking Shanesha “Hot Car Mom” Taylor case: I still stick by my opinion that her family ain’t about $#@* and likely hindered, rather than helped her or the children. ESPECIALLY the ‘fairweather friend’ baby daddy. From a commenter: “CPS cleared her of all charges, she gained custody of the children back, faithfully completed 20 weeks of intense court-mandated classes/counseling/testing.

THEN decided to stand up to them locking her out of the donations which her lawyer agreed to even though she told him she could not possibly do make it very long if they took the money away.

The right wingnuts came in and started publicly shaming her, gave her an almost immediate court date to put her back on trial over this ONE OFFENSE IN HER LIFE, for which she is sorry because of her refusal to freeze up her donations for 16 years. She would only get that money back if her children go to college.

They have lied about her and gave her a public shaming as “an undeserving poor black woman.”

I think this is a courageous move but her lawyer didn’t fight for her and she needs one outside of the area to come in and expose the unethical and illegality of this deal. “Freeze up the money donated to you for 16 years, maybe get it back then, or we put you on trial for felony child abuse.” At first she agreed, because she trusted her dumptruck lawyer. Then recognized that with all the notoriety and childcare costing $1250 per mo. for three kids that it is going to be VERY difficult to get a half decent job.

Plus her time has been tied up with all the classes. I don’t see any betrayal of the donors at all. I see a County Attorney with a history of mixing right wing politics seizing her funds for no reason and hauling her back to court. She was excluded from the actual details of the deal because as her attorney Benjamin Taylor put it, “she might anger the pompous County Attorney Bill Montgomery.” Outrageous situation, and all the judgmental people not even questioning HIM.”

“Arizona is known for over-zealous prosecution of people of all races, but particularly minorities. Clearly Montgomery is just “Jonesing” to send this mother of three to prison, regardless of the approximately $900,000 that it will cost for the trial, imprisonment and costs of having someone else rear her children. Montgomery and his right wing prosecution team cares nothing about the human toll and the devastating, life-long damage that prosecution on felony charges of which she has already been cleared will cause to her and every member of her family. Conservatives in charge of the criminal “justice” system there have demonized and stereotyped Shanesha as one of the “undeserving poor.”

Joyce Vogt, probably the largest single donor to the campaign, a woman who rallied her church to put up the bail and make donations for Taylor, said “I have no regrets in donating to Shanesha Taylor. I did this as a gift to her, to get her back on her feet. I don’t expect to get anything out of this because this wasn’t about me, it was about helping someone who was struggling and desperate. So often people give gifts and donations with strings attached. There were no strings…no expectations…no conditions. I question the tactics the State is using, insisting that she trade the financial freedom that donors around the world gifted to her for freedom from prosecution for these charges. It seems like a pretty unfair trade that places her back in the financial position that she was in when all this started. It doesn’t seem right to me to do that.”
(For Harriet)

A portion of the statement made by Ms. Taylor (the rest can be read in full, as well as a timeline of the legal and civil $#@&storm, at Daily Kos.com):

“My mind was not changed about the plea deal. I agreed to the terms of the deal (on the poor recommendation of my attorney) prior to all the terms of the deal being released to me because I foolishly trusted him. The final negotiations were not completed until September. I expressed my concerns with many of the unreasonable details since the negotiations began in July, long after the donors gave me the funds. My concerns and objections were not acknowledged by anyone. I continued to hold my ground on this with my lawyer Benjamin Taylor during the October hearings but I was steam-rolled by all involved who made the “agreement” to lock me out of funds I need to care for my children. The order then was that I had to accept this deal or face the maximum prosecution even though I was cleared of all charges and had the children in my custody. I was told “you have no choice but to accept this freezing of your donated money for 16 years and only if your kids go to college then, or else we take your kids away from you and send you to prison.”

Jarrett Maupin tried to extort $4,000 from me as a donation to his political campaign. He was very angry when I threw him off my defense team in August. Maupin just got off probation for telling lies and conducting himself in a questionable manner on other cases. http://www.fbi.gov/… My attorney Benjamin Taylor brought him on board but Maupin has never advocated for me to be able to hang on to the donated funds which I need. Under pressure, I donated $500 to his campaign which made him angry that it wasn’t more. He politicized my case during his run for office where he came in last. Now he’s out speaking against me in order to cover up this “deal” of which he was a part, even though I was excluded from these secret meetings. I tried to get transcripts but was told that no transcripts exist. Why not? It wasn’t in the news when I threw him off my “defense” team, but many people knew about it. I am doing my best to meet the court requirements and interview, but only on jobs that fit into the daycare hours and pay the $1250 per month that they cost plus care for the children and keep the household afloat.”