In a story that promises to get stranger every time we check back in, teen sex party mom Shannon O’Connor (or Bruga?), has been denied bail, and additionally stands accused of bilking a Santa Clara-based wireless firm out of $120,000.

You may have noticed this website has been using the nickname “Cool Mom” to describe Shannon O’Connor, the 47-year-old Los Gatos woman accused of throwing alcohol-fueled sex parties for teenagers, and then moved to Idaho where she was accused of doing the same there. But we are merely using the vernacular of the kids. As the Mercury News reported when the story broke, “O’Connor, 47, was apparently known as ‘the cool mom’ since the older son was in middle school and had raised eyebrows among some parents for her chumminess with her sons’ friends.”


There is obviously nothing cool about the fact that, as we now know, at least one young female was non-consensually penetrated at one of these parties, and another boy was given a concussion in a drunken driving incident O’Connor/Bruga allegedly egged on. Parents remain concerned that she was doing this kind of thing as recently as October 9 before her Idaho arrest, and because of this, she was denied bail on Wednesday, according to the Bay Area News Group.

“We truly all feel she is a threat to the community: We experienced it, our children experienced it, and our community is not safe while she is out on the street,” one anonymous mother of a victim told the News Group. “We are very grateful that the judge decided this today and didn’t prolong this.”

And here’s a new surprise — at the bottom of the News Group’s report we see another shocking detail: “In addition to the 39 party-related charges filed against O’Connor on Oct. 8, prosecutors in Santa Clara County filed three grand theft charges alleging she racked up $120,000 in unauthorized expenses on her former employer’s company credit cards, including payments for limo rides, clothing and alcohol delivered to her home.” That former employer is apparently Hewlett-Packard-owned Aruba Networks in Santa Clara.


That’s not all! KRON4’s Amy Larson unearthed the magnificent additional discovery that “Court documents show O’Connor has a criminal history. Six years ago she pleaded no contest to making false worker compensation insurance claims. Her co-defendant in the insurance fraud case was her husband, Robert Amaral. Amaral, a Silicon Valley tech executive, also pleaded no contest. They were ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution and to serve jail time.”

Which begs the obvious question… where is this woman’s husband the whole time? The two may be separated, we don’t know, but we do know that husband Robert Amaral is the chief revenue officer at Pleasanton-based online security firm SlashNext.  Just this past December, the Silicon Valley Business Journal named him to their ”People on the Move” list.  

Their use of the phrase “On the Move” may prove ironic.

Related: South Bay 'Cool Mom' Accused of Throwing Very Boozy Parties For Teen Son and His Friends Faces 39 Criminal Charges [SFist]

Image: Santa Clara County District Attorney