Ex-California mom charged with hosting parties with alcohol for teens and encouraging sexual assault
Shannon O'Connor listens in a courtroom, Oct. 20, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. The San Jose Mercury News says a grand jury in Santa Clara County, Calif. indicted O'Connor Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, on 63 charges, including furnishing alcohol to minors and aiding and abetting sexual assault. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group via AP, File)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — A woman accused of hosting parties for her teenage son and his friends in Northern California where she encouraged them to drink and sexually assault intoxicated girls was charged Monday with more than five dozen felony and misdemeanor counts.
Shannon Marie O’Connor, 49, was indicted by a grand jury in Santa Clara County on 63 charges including child endangerment for furnishing alcohol to minors and aiding and abetting sexual assault, the Mercury News reported.
Seventeen alleged victims testified at the grand jury hearing, the paper said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether O'Çonnor, who was ordered to remain in jail without bail, had an attorney who could speak to the charges.
Prosecutors contend that O'Connor staged six alcohol-fueled parties in 2020 at her-then home in Los Gatos and other places. Prosecutors allege she bought beer, vodka, whiskey and other liquor and encouraged the teens, who were mostly 14 and 15, to drink to the point of unconsciousness.
She also told them to keep the gatherings a secret and on several occasions helped teens sneak out of their homes in the middle of the night to attend them, according to court documents.
At a December 2020 party, O’Connor allegedly handed a condom to a boy and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated girl. Both were minors.
The girl was able to get away and locked herself in the bathroom, authorities said in court filings.
During a New Year’s Eve party at her home with about five 14-year-olds, O’Connor allegedly watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually battered a young girl in bed, authorities alleged.
In another case, she allegedly brought a drunk teen into a bedroom at her home where he sexually assaulted an intoxicated 14-year-old girl. That girl told investigators that at another party she was so drunk she almost drowned in a hot tub, according to the court filings.
O'Connor was arrested in 2021 in Ada County, Idaho, where she was living at the time.