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Editor’s Note: This article includes discussions on child abuse that may be unsettling for some readers. Your discretion is advised. If you suspect a child is being harmed, learn how to report it in your state here. For support, contact the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4253.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) – Following six days of intense deliberations, a jury in a California court reached a decision on Wednesday, convicting a woman infamously known as the “Los Gatos party mom.”
Shannon O’Connor, 51, was found guilty of over 60 charges, including several serious felony sex offenses.
O’Connor faced accusations of orchestrating clandestine parties at her lavish home, where she allegedly provided excessive alcohol to underage teenagers and coerced intoxicated minors into sexual encounters with one another, according to investigators. Many attendees were freshmen from Los Gatos High School and peers of O’Connor’s son, prosecutors revealed.
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O’Connor had been accused of organizing disturbing secret parties at her mansion, giving copious amounts of alcohol to underage teenagers and pressuring drunk minors to engage in sexual activities with each other, investigators said. Many party guests were freshmen at Los Gatos High School and friends with O’Connor’s son, prosecutors said.
“Shannon O’Connor was convicted of more than 60 crimes against more than a dozen child victims from Los Gatos,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen told reporters Wednesday. “The charges included child endangerment, molesting a child, dissuading witnesses from testifying, and facilitating forcible sexual assault from one child onto another child.”
“We expect, as parents, that we protect children,” Rosen continued. “This defendant took advantage of children, manipulated children, hurt children … and did that for her own perverse reasons.”
“It was a long trial. With the jury’s verdict today, there is now justice,” he added.
Defense attorney Stephen Prekoski had said his client was “crushed” and “very disappointed” by the verdict. Prekoski emphasized that O’Connor was not the “direct perpetrator of the sex acts in the case.”
O’Connor never took the stand to testify in self-defense during her four-month trial. Her charges had stemmed from incidents during the 2020-2021 school year, amid COVID pandemic restrictions.
Many witnesses who testified were 14 years old when they attended O’Connor’s parties, which deputy district attorney Joanna Lee described as “chaotic, alcohol-soaked benders.” Girls testified that O’Connor pressured and encouraged teens to “hookup,” and they were sexually assaulted by boys.
The victims in the case were 12 girls, identified throughout the trial as “Jane Does,” and eight boys, identified as “John Does.”
“It’s important to recognize the victims who testified,” Rosen told reporters. “This case does not happen if the children do not come forward and stop what this defendant was doing.”
Evidence presented by prosecutors at trial included cellphone and surveillance videos showing what it was like inside the parties, Snapchat text messages, and O’Connor’s phone calls to the Los Gatos Police Department.
The Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, in a news release issued upon O’Connor’s conviction, described some of O’Connor’s alleged behavior at the “drunken and destructive” parties she hosted.
“At one party O’Connor handed an underaged teenager a condom and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated minor. During a New Year’s Eve party with about five 14-year-olds, the defendant watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually battered a young girl in bed. In another case, the defendant brought one drunk teen into a bedroom where an intoxicated 14-year-old girl was lying in the bed,” reads the release.
O’Connor had also used Snapchat to communicate secretly with teenagers and instruct them to lie, multiple witnesses told the jury.
For nearly a year, parents, police, school officials, and even O’Connor’s wealthy husband were all kept in the dark, according to testimony. One mother testified that she trusted O’Connor to host teens “100%,” and that she felt guilty to not seeing red flags sooner.
The so-called “party mom,” as prosecutors have referred to her, told teens that she’d rather die than go to jail, an ex-girlfriend of O’Connor’s son testified.
O’Connor has been in custody without bail ever since her 2021 arrest. At her sentencing hearing, O’Connor will face more than 30 years in prison, Rosen said.