A Northern California woman who hosted alcohol-fueled parties for her son and other teens and pressured the underage attendees to have sex was sentenced Thursday to 35 years and 10 months in prison. <\/p>\n
Following a four-month criminal trial, a jury in March found Shannon Marie O\u2019Connor \u2014 dubbed the Los Gatos \u201cparty mom\u201d\u2014 guilty of 48 charges, including sexual penetration of an intoxicated victim, influencing a child to engage in sexual activity with another child, providing alcohol to a minor, annoying or molesting a child and attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, 52, provided vodka, Fireball whiskey, beer and hard seltzers to party attendees, who were mostly 13 to 15 years old, gave them condoms and encouraged them to engage in sexual activity while intoxicated, according to court documents. Prosecutors said she discouraged the teens from telling their parents or police about the parties. <\/p>\n
\u201cMs. O\u2019Connor cast a wide net,\u201d Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Peterson said Thursday during a sentencing hearing. \u201cShe groomed, manipulated, provided alcohol to and sexualized successive groups of her son\u2019s friends and classmates. When parents became suspicious of her conduct and forbid their children from attending Ms. O\u2019Connor\u2019s parties, she reflexively drew other children into her lair.\u201d <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor dabbed her eyes and nose with tissues as she addressed the court, saying she regrets what happened and emphasizing she\u2019s never had sexual inclinations toward any minors, including those involved in the case. <\/p>\n
Her attorney, Stephen Prekoski, told the court that O\u2019Connor\u2019s actions were attempts to improve her teen son\u2019s social life during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here to make excuses for my actions,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI\u2019m fully aware of how you all feel about me … You all trusted me and I let you all down. Because of my actions, or lack thereof, I have been absent for my own children, missing major milestones and time that I can never get back. They, as well as your sons and daughters, have suffered.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prekoski argued for Peterson to sentence his client to between 14 and 20 years behind bars, saying that the maximum prison term likely would mean O\u2019Connor would die \u201cin a cage.\u201d However, Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Joanna Lee took issue with that request, calling the case \u201cone of a kind\u201d and urging the court to impose the maximum sentence. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis case is about the children. Let\u2019s not forget about them. Children as young as 11 years old \u2014 11-,12-, 13-, 14-year-old children who are not able to protect themselves from Ms. O\u2019Connor,\u201d Lee said, as O\u2019Connor looked directly at the prosecutor, her mouth agape. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually offensive, like deeply offensive, that her remarks still show zero accountability for what she did to them. Saying, \u2018I\u2019m sorry you got hurt\u2019 is not an apology,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Dozens of victims and their parents spoke during the multiday sentencing hearing and recounted how the events at the parties hosted by O\u2019Connor left them with lasting trauma. A mother of two of the victims \u2014 identified as Jane Does 8 and 9 \u2014 said she\u2019ll never forget when one of her daughters was gifted lace thong underwear, purportedly from O\u2019Connor\u2019s then-15-year-old son. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey did not come from him, they came from you,\u201d the mother told O\u2019Connor. \u201cYou preyed upon my daughter by supplying her alcohol, enticing and pushing sexual situations, and pressuring her when she was not in a clear state to consent. When I say you and only you stole her innocence, it is the absolute truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning the summer of 2020, before her son\u2019s 15th birthday, prosecutors say O\u2019Connor provided excessive amounts of alcohol to her son and his friends \u2014 causing them to vomit, be unable to stand and fall unconscious.<\/p>\n
During a summer house party, a sober teen girl was asked to care for a 14-year-old boy who was extremely intoxicated and \u201ccovered in his own vomit.\u201d When the girl asked O\u2019Connor if she should call an ambulance, the woman told her no, Dist. Atty. Investigator Christina Hanks wrote in a declaration filed in court.<\/p>\n
While planning a birthday party for her son at a rented cottage in Santa Cruz, O\u2019Connor contacted his teen friends via Snapchat to ask \u201cwhat kind of alcohol they wanted,\u201d according to the declaration. Cameras on the property recorded drunk boys urinating outside, stumbling and falling over on the patio and throwing up in the backyard, causing about $9,000 in damage.<\/p>\n
In another incident in December 2020, prosecutors said, O\u2019Connor brought a drunk teen into a bedroom where an intoxicated 14-year-old girl was lying in bed. <\/p>\n
After she was assaulted, the girl asked O\u2019Connor why she left her in there with him, saying \u201cyou knew like what he was going to do to me,\u201d according to the declaration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern California woman who hosted alcohol-fueled parties for her son and other teens and pressured the underage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[10133,20313,154,861,1345,2454,19278,8,20315,20314,9,1343,860,413,1357,13655,7,1349],"class_list":["post-34238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-action","tag-alcohol","tag-case","tag-child","tag-court-document","tag-daughter","tag-friend","tag-headlines","tag-intoxicated-victim","tag-joanna-lee","tag-news","tag-oconnor","tag-parent","tag-party","tag-prosecutor","tag-son","tag-top-stories","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116656661053556082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}