California mom threw drunken parties for teens, pressured them into sex acts, police say
A California woman threw several parties for teenagers where she provided alcohol and pushed them into sex acts, police said.
Shannon O’Connor, 47, threw many of the ragers at her Bay Area home, the Santa Clara County district attorney said Tuesday in a press release. The attendees were mostly between the ages of 13-15.
O’Connor pressured multiple girls into sex acts, police said. At one party, she watched a boy grope and sexually batter a 14-year-old girl and laughed about it in the corner of the room, according to an investigator’s statement of facts.
In another case, she left a heavily intoxicated 14-year-old girl alone in a bedroom with a heavily intoxicated 14-year-old boy and then laughed when the girl said she was sexually assaulted, police said.
“Why did you leave me in there with him? Like why did you do that? Like you knew what he was going to do to me,” the girl told O’Connor, according to police.
O’Connor routinely threw the parties at her home in Los Gatos, about eight miles south of downtown San Jose, beginning in June 2020 and continuing for eight months, investigators said. They noted that O’Connor even created a Snapchat group message to plan the gatherings.
She planned a special bash at a rental home in Santa Cruz, where various teenagers got hammered and the group caused $9,000 worth of damage, police said. At another party, one 14-year-old girl passed out and broke her finger, requiring surgery, according to investigators.
In another instance, O’Connor put an unlicensed teen at the wheel of her car while two other kids held onto the back, police said. One kid fell off and was knocked out, only regaining consciousness to throw up from the head injury and a copious amount of alcohol, according to investigators. He was diagnosed with a concussion the next day after spending the night vomiting.
“It took a lot of brave children to come forward and to untangle this deeply disturbing case,” district attorney Jeff Rosen said in the press release. “As a parent, I’m shocked. As the DA, I’m determined to hold those adults who endanger children fully accountable to the law and our community.”
O’Connor is formally charged with 39 crimes: one count of sexual battery, three counts of annoying or molesting a child, 12 counts of endangering or injuring the health of a child, 10 additional counts of child endangerment and 13 counts of giving alcohol to children.
