A California mom has been charged with hosting a series of illegal parties where she handed teens booze and condoms – and even watched while they engaged in sex acts, Santa Clara County officials confirmed Tuesday.
Shannon O'Connor, 47, who now lives in Eagle, Idaho, bought vodka and Fireball whiskey, provided condoms, and discouraged the teens from telling their parents about the parties or calling for help when one of them passed out in their own vomit, the statement of facts state. The teens at these parties were mostly 14 and 15 years old.
O'Connor, the mother of a 15-year-old, is charged with 39 criminal counts, including felony child abuse, sexual assault, and providing alcohol to minors. As of Tuesday morning, an arraignment hearing was pending for the defendant, reported KTLA TV station.
"It took a lot of brave children to come forward and to untangle this deeply disturbing case," DA Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "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 Facilitated Sexual Assaults
The child abuse charges outline a long line of O'Connor's drunken and destructive house parties for young teens lasting from 2020 to earlier this year.
She would warn the teens not to disclose the parties or she could go to jail. At one party at her home, O'Connor handed a underaged teenager a condom and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated minor, prosecutors said.
During a New Year's Eve party at her home with about five 14-year-olds, the defendant watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually battered a young girl in bed.
In another case, the defendant brought one drunk teen into a bedroom at her home where an intoxicated 14-year-old girl was lying in the bed. After she was assaulted, the girl said to the defendant: "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 me."
In some cases, O'Connor would Snapchat or text teens to leave their homes in the middle of the night and drink at her home. She would provide the alcohol.
In another case, she let a minor drive her SUV in the Los Gatos High School parking lot while two other teens held on to the back. One fell off and was knocked unconscious.
Fraud Charges
In a separate case, O'Connor faces felony fraud charges for making more than $120,000 in unauthorized charges on a company card she was given as an administrative assistant for Aruba Networks.
"Everyone should feel relieved this woman's not on the street," the mother of one of the girls said, according to The Mercury News. "She was grooming these kids, setting them up for sexual acts, and she's a mother and doing this to her own child. ... I've been racking my brain trying to think what was in it for her."
