No Charges Over Children Left at Home

Calling the conduct involved “very disturbing” but not illegal, prosecutors announced Friday that they would not file criminal charges against a Simi Valley couple who left their children home alone for several days.

In a 13-page report released by the Ventura County district attorney’s office, prosecutors said their investigation did not establish that the children were in any danger or that the parents acted with criminal negligence by leaving the children, ages 6, 7, 10 and 13, home alone for four days in January.

The parents, Armand E. and Robbin M. D’Alo, issued a written statement defending their actions after the district attorney’s announcement.

“Our children were never left alone, they were left together,” the statement said. “We were in constant contact with the home by phone and within a few minutes of an airport, allowing us to quickly be home if the need arose. But now our lives have been shattered by these overzealous actions on the part of ill-informed people.”

In a telephone interview, the D’Alos said they left their children home alone six or seven times starting in October to attend a class in San Jose related to their financial planning business. Most of the time they left home after the children were in bed on a Friday night and returned Sunday, said Armand D’Alo, 36.

“We had no qualms at all concerning leaving our kids alone,” he said.

“And the kids were not afraid until the police came,” said Robbin D’Alo, 35.

Police found the children home alone Jan. 11 after a school principal became suspicious about the occasional unexplained absences of the 7-year-old boy, prosecutors said.

The children were reluctant to cooperate with detectives, and at least two of them begged the police not to break up the family, the district attorney’s report said. The children were interviewed by a representative of the county’s Children’s Services agency and were released to an aunt, officials said.

Police said the children were in good health and had plenty of food. The district attorney’s report said the children were instructed to call a nearby aunt if they had a problem, and the telephone numbers of several church members were left with the children.

Prosecutors said in a press conference Friday that the D’Alo case attracted a lot of interest because of comparisons to the Illinois so-called “home alone” child-neglect case. However, the two cases differ substantially, prosecutors said.

In the Illinois case, David and Sharon Schoo were arrested in December after they left their daughters, ages 9 and 4, at home alone while traveling to Mexico on a nine-day vacation.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrice Koenig, who reviewed the D’Alo case for her office, said the facts in the Illinois case are “substantially more aggravated and more dangerous than in this case.”

For example, Koenig said, the Illinois children had no idea where their parents were during the nine days they were alone, and the parents never contacted the children during that time to check on their welfare.

The Schoo children also were given no instructions on what to do in an emergency, and they were frightened at being left alone, Koenig said. There are also allegations of physical abuse in that case, Koenig said.

Both prosecutors and the D’Alos noted that the law does not state how old a child must be to be left in charge of younger siblings. The D’Alos described their oldest child as a mature and very capable boy, a view also expressed by the social worker who interviewed him at the request of police.

After their investigation, detectives asked prosecutors to file misdemeanor child abuse charges against the D’Alos.

In her report, Koenig said her office “in no way condones the conduct of this mother and father in leaving their four children alone.”

“The conduct involved here is very disturbing and inconsistent with the standards expected of parents of young children,” Koenig wrote. “It would be a mistake for the public to take from this case the belief there is nothing wrong in leaving children home alone in these circumstances.”

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee said in the press conference that because there is no “bright line” distinguishing when parents can and cannot leave their children unsupervised, any future cases referred to his office will be evaluated by the specific circumstances of the situation.

“I think most people would say that you’re just playing Russian roulette when you take this kind of chance,” McGee said of the D’Alo situation.

Community standards, and what most people believe is an acceptable child-care arrangement, will be a factor in deciding if the conduct is criminal, McGee said.

The D’Alos said they now take their children with them when they attend their class and they have no intention of leaving their children home alone again.

“But our actions are not taken because of a lack of faith and trust in our children or their abilities,” the couple wrote. “These actions are taken out of fear of this system we are dealing with.”