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.
Following a four-month criminal trial, a jury in March found Shannon Marie O’Connor — dubbed the Los Gatos “party mom”— 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.
O’Connor, 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.
“Ms. O’Connor cast a wide net,” Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Peterson said during a sentencing hearing on Thursday. “She groomed, manipulated, provided alcohol to and sexualized successive groups of her son’s friends and classmates. When parents became suspicious of her conduct and forbid their children from attending Ms. O’Connor’s parties, she reflexively drew other children into her lair.”
O’Connor dabbed her eyes and nose with tissues as she addressed the court, saying that she regrets what happened and emphasizing that she’s never had sexual inclinations toward any minors, including those involved in the case.
Her attorney, Stephen Prekoski, told the court that O’Connor’s actions were the result of her attempts to improve her teen son’s social life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m not here to make excuses for my actions,” O’Connor said. “I’m 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.”
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’Connor would die “in a cage.” However, Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Joanna Lee took issue with that request, calling the case “one-of-a-kind” and urging the court to impose the maximum sentence.
“This case is about the children. Let’s not forget about them. Children as young as 11 years old — 11-,12-, 13-, 14-year-old children who are not able to protect themselves from Ms. O’Connor,” Lee said, as O’Connor looked directly at the prosecutor, her mouth agape.
“It’s actually offensive, like deeply offensive, that her remarks still show zero accountability for what she did to them. Saying, ‘I’m sorry you got hurt,’ is not an apology,” Lee said.
Dozens of victims and their parents spoke during the multi-day sentencing hearing and recounted how the events at the parties hosted by O’Connor left them with lasting trauma. A mother of two of the victims — identified as Jane Does 8 and 9 — said she’ll never forget when one of her daughters was gifted lace thong underwear, purportedly from O’Connor’s then-15-year-old son.
“They did not come from him, they came from you,” the mother told O’Connor. “You 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.”
Beginning the summer of 2020, before her son’s 15th birthday, prosecutors say O’Connor provided excessive amounts of alcohol to her son and his friends — causing them to vomit, be unable to stand and fall unconscious.
During a summer house party, a sober teen girl was asked to care for a 14-year-old boy who was extremely intoxicated and “covered in his own vomit.” When the girl asked O’Connor if she should call an ambulance, the woman told her no, District Attorney Investigator Christina Hanks wrote in a declaration filed in court.
While planning a birthday party for her son at a rented cottage in Santa Cruz, O’Connor contacted his teen friends via Snapchat to ask “what kind of alcohol they wanted.” 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, according to the declaration.
In another incident in December 2020, prosecutors said, O’Connor brought a drunk teen into a bedroom where an intoxicated 14-year-old girl was lying in bed.
After she was assaulted, the girl asked O’Connor why she left her in there with him, saying “you knew like what he was going to do to me,” according to the declaration.
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