What did dad know about scandal?
Only Los Gatos mom is charged in teen parties fueled by sex, alcohol
A Los Gatos woman is jailed on charges of hosting boozy, sexually abusive parties for her high school freshman son and his friends at her $4.7 million home that could send her to prison for decades. But her husband walks free, though they share the home where much of the alleged debauchery took place.
Prosecutors have indicated in court papers that the accused woman, Shannon O’Connor, took steps to hide the partying from her husband, Robert Amaral. Those who know the couple, who would speak only on condition they wouldn’t be identified to protect their children, say he refused to believe she was orchestrating teen delinquency under their roof.
Reached by phone this past week, Amaral, 60, a technology company executive, declined to comment.
Still, many parents whose teens are alleged victims said in interviews they find it hard to believe he didn’t know more about what was alleged to have happened under his roof. O’Connor faces 39 felony and misdemeanor counts, including child endangerment and molestation and furnishing liquor to minors from June 2020 to May 2021. Fifteen boys and girls, including her son, are alleged victims. They were 14-15 years old at the time.
“We thought he was buying into her lies,” said one former friend whose son had been to parties at the house. “But the longer it went on … there’s only so much plausible deniability he can have.”
O’Connor entered no plea during an Oct. 20 court appearance. She’s being held without bail with a hearing set for Dec. 17. She has declined interview requests and her lawyer, Sam Polverino, hasn’t commented on the charges. There was no indication Amaral was in the courtroom at his wife’s first
For a Halloween party last year, prosecutors alleged O’Connor’s “plan was to take her husband … out of the house” and that “the children knew they had to wait for him to leave before they could begin drinking.”
hearing.
Legal expert Steven Clark, a former Santa Clara County deputy district attorney with extensive trial experience, said prosecutors would be cautious about charging Amaral absent clear evidence of his involvement.
In court papers, prosecutors indicated that in the first alleged house party in the summer of 2020, once O’Connor “realized her husband was almost home, she rushed the minors out of the house to hide her actions from her husband.”
For a Halloween party last year, prosecutors alleged O’Connor’s “plan was to take her husband … out of the house” and that “the children knew they had to wait for him to leave before they could begin drinking.”
For other alleged parties, whether at the couple’s Los Gatos house or places O’Connor rented in the Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe areas, prosecutors did not mention her husband.
Clark said the charges against O’Connor stem from her role in organizing and participating in the parties where teens allegedly drank themselves to the point of vomiting and passing out and where drunken girls were sexually assaulted while the mom was reported to be present — in some cases, right in front of her.
“It’s not just that these events went on under her watch,” Clark said. “She aided and facilitated these events. There’s a big distinction there.”
By contrast, with her husband, Clark said, “it doesn’t appear the teens were under his control.”
“Even if he should have suspected something was going on and was lackadaisical to what was going on, that wouldn’t rise to a situation where there would be willful child endangerment,” Clark said. That doesn’t mean, however, that her husband would be totally off the hook.
“From a civil standpoint, he has a lot of exposure,” Clark said. “You have a duty to maintain a safe environment and a duty of care for people on your premises.”
It’s not unusual for prosecutors to charge one parent and not the other even when parents in similar cases are charged together. That happened in the recent college admissions scandal of rich parents paying a corrupt consultant to get their kids into elite universities with fraudulent entrance exam scores, bribes and bogus athletic résumés.
Some of those couples, like actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, and Atherton financier Manuel Henriquez and his wife, Elizabeth, were charged together as couples and pleaded guilty. But actress Felicity Huffman and Napa vintner Agustin Huneeus, who also pleaded guilty, were charged individually while their spouses weren’t implicated.
O’Connor’s older son is from a prior marriage. He’s lived mostly with her and Amaral since they married in 2008, court records indicate.
On his LinkedIn page, Amaral said he played a “key role in driving four companies to IPO and also multiple acquisitions amounting to over $8 billion in shareholder value.” His most recent position was chief revenue officer at SlashNext, a Pleasanton cybersecurity company, where he has been for more than a year.
But his status there is unclear — the company removed him from its online list of leaders after prosecutors announced O’Connor’s arrest. Reached by phone, CEO Patrick Harr said he couldn’t comment on employee matters.
The former friend whose son had been to the house parties said he was puzzled at Amaral’s refusal to consider evidence that O’Connor had arranged for the kids to drink, even after he told Amaral he took screenshots of her Snapchat messaging with the teens the next day.
“He was trying to blame it on one of the girls,” the parent said, referring to who supplied the alcohol.
Months later, as the couple planned a move to Idaho, O’Connor invited girls her son had met there to stay at their Los Gatos home, where prosecutors allege she furnished the teens with liquor and encouraged them to have sex. There was no indication in court documents whether Amaral was home at the time.
But a long-time acquaintance said Amaral wouldn’t approve of O’Connor allowing kids to drink and would admonish her not to message with teens on their phones. When the parties led to friction with other parents, they’d move on to new friends. Noting that he was obsessed with his career, the acquaintance speculated: “It’s easier for him to immerse himself with work. It’s easier for him to keep his head in the sand.”