Share and Follow
Inset: Shannon O’Connor (Santa Clara DA’s Office). Background: The Los Gatos mansion where she threw alcohol-fueled parties for teens (KNTV).
A woman from California was found guilty on Wednesday for hosting wild, alcohol-laden parties for minors at her luxurious Los Gatos home, where she allegedly encouraged them to engage in non-consensual sexual activities under her watchful eye, according to prosecutors.
Dubbed “Party Mom,” Shannon O’Connor was convicted of numerous felonies, including two charges of sexual penetration, 13 counts of endangering a child, and one charge of attempting to dissuade a witness, as announced by authorities.
O’Connor, age 51, faced a total of 48 criminal charges, encompassing both felonies and misdemeanors.
In a statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, it was revealed that O’Connor provided teenagers, mainly aged 14 and 15, with Fireball whiskey, vodka, and condoms. She also warned them against informing their parents or the police about these gatherings. In some disturbing instances, she even discouraged them from seeking medical help when attendees were found unconscious in their own vomit.
“This defendant not only failed to protect these children, but she also jeopardized their well-being, orchestrated their sexual assaults, and attempted to silence them,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen remarked following the verdict. “These courageous young individuals stepped forward to reveal the truth and put an end to the wrongdoing.”
O’Connor used social media platforms to communicate with students at Los Gatos High School, where two of her sons were enrolled. She often used Snapchat or text messages, telling teens to leave their homes “in the middle of the night” and come to her house where they could drink alcohol that she had purchased for them.
At one party, O’Connor handed a teenager a condom and pushed him into a room with another drunk teen, prosecutors said.
During a New Year’s Eve party with about five 14-year-olds, authorities said she watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually battered a young girl in bed.
In another case, she allegedly brought a drunk teen boy into a bedroom at her home where an intoxicated 14-year-old girl was lying in bed.
Afterward, the girl asked O’Connor: “Why did you leave me in there with him? Like why did you like do that? Like you knew like what he was going to do to me,” authorities said.
The mother was also accused of allowing a minor to drive her SUV in a parking lot while two other kids were hanging onto the back of the vehicle. One of the two teens hanging onto the back fell off and was knocked unconscious.
“It was a long wait. It was a long trial. There was a lot of hardship and pain, and suffering. But with the jury’s verdict today, there is now justice,” Rosen said outside the courthouse Wednesday, per The Mercury News. “It’s important to recognize the victims who testified and their families, their parents who supported them during this very difficult ordeal. This case does not happen if the children do not come forward and stop what this defendant was doing.”
O’Connor has been in detention at the Santa Clara County Jail since her arrest over four years ago.
A date for O’Connor’s sentencing hearing has not been set. She faces more than 30 years in prison.