The homeless woman who was arrested after leaving her two children in a car while she went on a job interview gained the sympathy of thousands with her story. Now that sympathy has turned to outrage.
After Shanesha Taylor’s struggle and teary-eyed mugshot gained national attention, over $114,000 was raised from donations of 4,000 people though the online fundraising site, YouCaring.com. The Arizona mother was charged with felony abuse and was mandated by a judge to put $40,000 in a trust fund for her children to avoid jail time. Now that she has missed the deadline to do so, her charges have been reinstated and what she has done with the money has been revealed.
Taylor, 43, has reportedly been spending $4,000 a month on frivolous things, including funding her children’s father’s rap album, according to Reverend Jarrett Maupin, a former supporter of Taylor’s,
“The money is gone by all accounts,” Maupin told FOX. “It’s been spent on designer clothes, family outings in and out of this city and reports that $6,000 spent on studio time for her baby daddy’s rap album.”
Taylor told ABC that anything Maupin says about her is libel and slander and that these allegations are untrue; however, if they are untrue it’s unclear where the donated funds went. Taylor is now using social media to gain donations again while she remains unemployed. Her lawyers have quit and she is due back in court in December.