her dad told me to put this cute one here as the rest of her photos are ugly mug shots. Oh well.Shanna |
Shanna was in gifted. I saw a movie of her dancing ballet-- she was an accomplished little-girl-dancer. Then, she was 12. By 14, her father told me and all his friends many times in his frustration, she had sneaked boys into her bedroom at night so many times that her adoptive father and her mother were divorcing over , in part, the strain--the differences of opinion. Bob didn't want his own daughter, Robin's other kid, having the permissive youth his wife offered Shanna. His wife blamed Shanna's troubled soul on his withdrawal from her when she turned 13ish. (That proof is in the letter on this site that she wrote herself.)He was confounded in what to do--having saved Shanna's life when she froze on a bicycle while racing into a wall as a child, he wanted to be proud of that. But he found himself angry a lot with the irrespectful boys he threw out of his house after finding them in her bedroom at night. It is two stories up and has one window with a blind to the floor you can't really raise to get in and out of the window easy. Outside it is a slim crumbling ledge, and no gutter to shimmy down or anything. Such particulars are irrelevant, as Shanna it seems didn't have to sneak past too many people, after all-- just Dad, not so much Mom-- after the divorce, Shanna's thoughtful Mom let the 16-year-old girl live with a 31-year-old boyfriend --in Mom's house. Bob says now he should have used that fact to get custody of her then and let Robin , the mom, pay HIM child support. But he wasn't thinking, he said, his heart too broken. Christian was born when Shanna was 16. The father, about 18 years old, got custody . |
Shanna's grandmother on her mom's side insisted on giving her a car. Shanna was suposed to keep up insurance and oil changes but she got the most tickets I've ever heard of anyone getting in 3 years, instead. She got in physical altercations with her mother, and her mother had peace bonds out on her to keep her off the property and out of the house, when Shanna was 18 and 19. I know all this because I lived with Bob and Danielle would come for the weekend and tell us Shanna kept moving back in anyway, when Robin and Danielle, 8 years younger, weren't home. Then there would be a huge fight. Robin works for DACCO, the drug rehab specialists. She's an RN. She medicates reforming drug addicts. Perhaps she really didn't guess that her oldest child was on drugs. According to Bob , she fights constantly with her own mother. Perhaps fostered by a familial behaviorial pattern of intra-female tension, the role of drugs in Shanna's personality conflicts was not considered until this, this vehicular manslaughter of a Habitat for Humanity volunteer. |
Mom wants to address it now by getting Shanna out of jail and back to her job in an effort to counter vicious press attacks on Shanna's somewhat-fragile reputation.Mom's going where she always goes when she needs a new swimming pool or whatever--Adoptive Dad. Robin called Bob this morning (April 10, 2001)--7 a.m this morning--to insist that he fork over close to $800 for Shanna's bail to assist in this ambitious plan. Robin is a very persuasive, domineering talker, and Bob was shaking in his voice when she got done with him, kinda unsure where the sky was versus the ground all a sudden. He'd been focused on an Orlando job and she called him an hour before the Bobs were to hit the great long lonesome highway, I-4. Then he nervously thought he better find $800 but "I know my parents don't have it". I could tell he had that much on hand, saved toward his mortgage or child support payment __"Even if I did have it I wouldn't be able to wait 6 months to get it back!" Bob, bail Shanna out and Bubba the Love Sponge is going to meet her at work the first day with a microphone. Bob, then she'll run from the job with everything in the till and take out a petrified rabbi while driving down some road upside down. Bob, you don't have any money. Bob, you'll lose your house. Bob, when you don't make the child support this month subsequently, they'll hang you. Bob, Shanna's going to kill Shanna next--don't pay for it. Keep her where she's safe right now. Bob--Bob. |
Robin wanted the divorce. She got $850 a month child support because Bob made $40,000 that year. The depression of divorce took it's toll on Bob, who soon thereafter lost that cushy job. He got to live in the house, which they both co-own still. He sells it, she has to agree, and gets half, but she does not have to pay any of the mortgage or upkeep costs. He pays every penny of any of that. His divorce legal fees--she got him for all divorce fees--caused him to re-finance the house at 11% interest to pay the attorney off, in an effort to do, always , the noblest thing. She told him verbally that she would settle for $450 a month child support , for Danni, since he and she knew that she did not support Shanna at a tender age herself, although she did babysit Shanna's kid-- She didn't like it when Bob left Danielle in Florida to see me through a heart-transplant in California, and tok the deal back--by filing for 4 years' back child support for Shanna through her new position at the Chld Support Enforcement Agency. Bob, totally, totally strapped by the huge mortgage on a house he built completely with his own hands and child support for his blood daughter, did nothing as certified letters came regarding the immanent revocation of his driver's license, and then court trial for failure to pay child support. Just before the trial he hired a lawyer, who told him to have at least $5000 of the $7000 he owed when he got there. At court, Bob was ordered to pay $3,700.00 by the following morning at a place way out in Brandon, which he did. A day or so later he got a phone call from Home Depot--his check had bounced. The bank told him cooly that the Department of Revenue had put a freeze on his account balance of several thousand dollars, most of which he'd just paid--or thought he'd paid--to his mortgage company, but, of course, that also bounced. What's going on! Thinks Bob, and calls his attorney frantically. The attorney says he'll check it out. He calls Bob back later and says, "The $3,700 was not to keep them from your other assets--it was merely to keep you out of jail that morning. They never promised not to do this.." He had been going to file the necessary paperwork to take Shanna off Bob's shoulders. Shanna is, after all, over 21 years old, and has a 4-year-old child.Her mother does not support her and has not for years. Why indeed should Bob pay her mother for supporting her? Because Robin had also seen to it that Bob owed child support for Shanna on an open-ended basis, that is, the divorce never specified that payments would stop when Shanna reached 18, or 21, or even 81. Absurd as that seems, Bob lost his drivers' license over it twice since Shanna was 20, so far, and has been to court facing jail time over not paying the child support of a 21-year-old mother. And it's not over soon because before the attorney ever helped Bob change all that, he sent Bob a bill for an extra $1000 for that phone call that day. You know, the one where Bob said,"I thought you took care of all this yesterday!" ($250.00) and the lawyer called the court ($500) to see why they were holding Bob's bank account hostage and called Bob back ($250) and told him. (What Bob did the day he opened that bill comes up in the Pasco County, Florida court docket in May--- life is heavy stuff.) Bob did not, yet, pay this attorney, who has lately fired off to him a letter of the intent-not-to-ever-represent-so-don't-call-again variety; this also means, however, that Bob still can't get Shanna's $400 -a -month stipend stopped, him needing a lawyer as much as ever still, and all. So he went to a courthouse last week, just, to pay some on it and keep his license a few more days. He pays this money to the ex, of course; when they got all his dough last summer with that two-step dance I told about above, she got a new inground pool in her backyard. She has a live-in love who Danielle told me and my daughters and Bob began sleeping between her and an insecure little Danielle just months after the divorce. Soon after they moved out of Dad's, Danielle said, her mom came out of her room one evening all dressed up with lipstick on. Danielle didn't want her to date. She was distressed. Her mom went on the date and soon the man was sleeping with them, as Danielle had been sleeping with her mom since the divorce out of insecurity. He has lived with them for 4 years now--they both have steady incomes. He's a pool cleaner and my sister and her boyfriend of 30 years saw him pick Danielle up at the airport after Bob, Danni, Mary, Marina and I drove to California and flew the two school-aged kids back for school. (They were picking up Mary.) My sister said the stepdad was real huggy and loving and Danni seemed real close to him , too. Apparently to keep Bob from being too jealous, she doesn't tell him how close she is to her mom's long-term lover.You wonder how the ex could dare call Bob this morning, considering what she's doing to him. You might wonder if he has given me a fair view of the situation, or a fairy tale version of what and why. Because he isn't telling anyone else close to him about his upcoming trial for felony battery and malicious destruction of property. Not even Mom or Dad or Kids. Anyway, to sum, that's what Shanna means to me. The strain we couldn't sustain. |
Which came first, the chicken or the road |
SHANNA WEST SHANNA WEST .SHANNA WEST |
BOB |
My rented bedroom in Bob's house, 1999; it was once a daughter of his's room |
Shanna took the date rape drug GHB in an Arizona Iced Tea. She told reporters she then left her house so her boyfriend wouldn't rape her again. She fell asleep while driving. |
Danni |
One little American-Canadian family |
Her adoptive dad doesn't like the photo of her the newspapers keep printing; it makes her look like a sleeze, he said. People have told me that "everybody hates her because of what she is, how she is, the dumb stuff she says", which they all get only from the papers. The first time I met her I was home alone. She wanted her nice keyboard from her childhood that was at her dad's because, she said, her boyfriend was taking up keyboard, not, she said, to sell it or anything. When she added that, I was about sure they were unloading it for drug money. Unless she's changed radically, they are not likely to make this new way she's trying to be on. Her adoptive dad just put his house up for her bond and she got out of jail the end of June. I hope for his sake she is really changed...but she is with the same guy--I don't see how. I don't understand her problem but she reaches into my life. . |
Shanna |
Updated constantly. |
My note: This is copied and pasted from a St Pete Times article.Someone came to my website the other day (July 26, 2004) from a search engine and these were the other hits she/he got: all newspaper articles about Shanna that portray her almost contemptuously. I try to say don't hate her. There's another side. Below, the whole newspaper article: Suspect in DUI treated lightly When he sentenced Shanna Jane West, the judge was unaware of the fatal traffic accident she was involved in on the same day of her DUI arrest. By RYAN DAVIS and BRADY DENNIS © St. Petersburg Times, published February 2, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAMPA -- The young woman appearing before Hillsborough County Judge Manuel A. Lopez seemed intelligent but didn't really stand out from the parade of other DUI offenders in the Tampa courtroom Thursday morning. He gave her the standard punishment for a first-time DUI offender: probation, a fine, court fees, community service and a 180-day license suspension. That was before Lopez realized he was dealing with a 21-year-old Brandon woman who had driven high on drugs and killed someone later in the same day as her DUI arrest. "I wished I'd known about it at the time," Lopez said. "I wouldn't have let her enter that plea." Lopez would have assigned Shanna Jane West, who defended herself and pleaded guilty, an attorney because he might have sentenced her to jail time -- a maximum of six months, he said. West crashed head-on Nov. 21 into a car on U.S. 41, killing 53-year-old passenger Barbara Mercer of Dade City. The next day, West told the St. Petersburg Times she was high on drugs at the time of the accident. She hasn't been arrested in connection with the Land O'Lakes wreck. Florida Highway Patrol officials say they are awaiting blood tests from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement before pressing charges. West said she is scheduled to give FHP troopers a statement today, more than 10 weeks after the wreck. Earlier the same day as the fatal accident, West fell asleep behind the wheel of her car on Dale Mabry Highway. That led to the DUI charge she faced Thursday. During both incidents, West was high on GHB, commonly known as a date rape drug. It causes euphoria as well as sedation. Upon learning of the pending fatal crash charges from a Times reporter, Lopez scheduled a new hearing for West next month. Her sentence is likely to get stiffer, he said. The fact that her license was revoked Dec. 15 because of the pending charges from the fatal crash was nowhere in his records, Lopez said. Prosecutor Michael McLaughlin said he also was unaware. West actually got off easier than the standard offender. Lopez indicated she likely could avoid attending DUI school because she said she had been in a drug rehabilitation program for 30 days. Outside the courtroom, West told a Times reporter that it was actually a six-month rehabilitation program and she dropped out after 30 days. "I had a little problem and left," she said. After learning from a reporter that West had not completed the rehabilitation program, Lopez said she will have to attend DUI school and told the prosecutor to examine the transcript and possibly pursue perjury charges. "She lied to me," Lopez said. Mary Dean, a victim's advocate with Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Lakeland, said Thursday's conviction will mean harsher penalties for West if she is charged and convicted in the fatal accident. If charged in the fatal wreck, West also could be held without bail under a new state law that took effect Oct. 1. Known as the Trooper Robert Smith Act, it states that a DUI manslaughter defendant can be held without bail if there is substantial probability that the defendant committed the crime and that he or she poses a threat to the community. "That girl has proven she is a threat to society," Dean said. "I think the opportunity to use this law is there, and I hope Pasco County uses it. If and when she's charged with the other crash, I hope this conviction helps keep her off the street." Rick Lear, the assistant state's attorney in charge of traffic cases, said West's involvement in the fatal accident should have been brought up in court. But he said it's not significant that it wasn't. "The second offense is going to take a bigger bite," he said. |
If you do a Google search on Shanna, you get all the news articles, none flattering, my site, and this doctor who put the news articles on his site about her, too: http://www.myersmd.com/_wsn/page7.html And here are the rest of the hits the visitor got on Alta Vista, all newspaper articles: Pasco: Accused woman to be held until trial Pasco: Fatal-crash defendant remorseful Pasco: Shanna West, driver in fatal crash, posts bond Pasco: Lawyer pushes for bail for driver in fatal crash Pasco: Suspect in DUI treated lightly Pasco: Driver waives her right to speedy trial St. Petersburg Times Online: Pasco County news |
He can turn the tides and calm the angry sea, He alone decides who writes a symphony; He lights every star that makes our darkness bright, He keeps watch all through each long and lonely night. He still finds the time to hear a child's first pray'r, Saint or sinner call and always find Him there; Though it makes Him sad to see the way we live, He'll always say, "I forgive." He can grant a wish or make a dream come true, He can paint the clouds and turn the gray to blue; He alone knows where to find the rainbow's end, He alone can see what lies beyond the bend. He can touch a tree and turn the leaves to gold, He knows ev'ry lie that you and I have told; Though it makes Him sad to see the way we live, He'll always say, "I forgive." |
I looked at this site's stats and people came here by searching for: Samoans (this page does not link to Shanna's pages) "picture of Bob West" "husband" (Canadian, got the picture of Bob hugging me ) fantasy (Holland)( they got my MOSI photo on "buddies"; this page does not link to Shanna) MOSI (this page does not link to Shanna) and finally, 3 people, me, and 2 others, looked up Shanna West. The rest ALL looked up this song and got this site: This includes someone from the White House. I like to think they looked up the song because they are Christian and then read this and prayed for her. And have plans to help the bipolar. |
Dear Homestead, When you copy this site for Shanna please include the one page linked from here about her that is on another of my sites so she can see wht good she did and never knew: :http://www.homestead.com/budforlove/index.html |
her dad told me to put this cute one here as the rest of her photos are ugly mug shots. Oh well.Shanna |
