The latest update in the case of accused sexual-predator/corrupter of teens Shannon O'Connor, a.k.a. the Los Gatos Party Mom who we've referred to as the Los Gatos "Cool Mom," comes via her latest appearance in court.
O'Connor, who has also gone by Shannon Bruga, was supposed to be entering a plea on Monday in a Santa Clara County courtroom. She's facing 39 separate charges stemming from parties she allegedly facilitated in 2020 and early 2021 for her teenage son and his friends at her home in Los Gatos, and at which, parents of teen attendees say, kids were encouraged to get blackout drunk and have sex with each other.
Now KRON4 reports that O'Connor, 47, came to court Monday but did not enter a plea, and prosecutors said they had new evidence to review — which sounds like it could lead to new charges.
Among that evidence seems to be transcripts of phone calls between O'Connor and her son, and O'Connor and her husband in which she may be committing new crimes.
"For months, defendant isolated children in a space she controlled. She got them drunk and encouraged them to sexually assault one another," writes District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen in court documents. "Even when she was taken into custody, defendant kept taking steps to avoid accountability for her actions, dissuading one of her victims from cooperation with the investigation and attempting to hide cash and property from detection."
Per those documents, and via KRON4, we learn that O'Connor "repeatedly encouraged [her 15-year-old son] not to cooperate with the ongoing investigation," and she allegedly told him not to share any passwords to computers or phones or apps with the investigators.
In an October phone call with ex-husband Robert Amaral — who, it should be noted, was calling his ex-wife a "menace to society" in a February bail hearing — O'Connor allegedly "instructed him to recover her bank card … and withdraw money from the account in cash," and her "attempts to conceal her assets also extended to her real property," with a request that he put the Los Gatos home entirely into his own name.
And, Rosen says, in that same phone call, O'Connor became upset with Amaral, and "She told him, ‘You better not fuck me, Robert. I signed everything over to you.'"
It's not clear what the prosecution wants to do here, because Rosen writes that Amaral said in the call that "he was going to try to help her any way he could." Maybe that's charge-able too?
Anyway, Judge Johnny Gogo has denied all bail for O'Connor, declaring her a flight risk. And she's now not due back in court until June 24.
Previously: Two Teens Give Shocking, Detailed Testimony in ‘Cool Mom’ Bail Hearing, Lawyer Requests Delay to Rebut