A 49-year-old mother is facing 63 charges of child abuse after 17 children testified to a grand jury.
Shannon O’Connor, 49, is accused of organizing sordid underage s3x parties for her teenage son and his friends.
She is also accused of pressuring children as young as 13 to binge on alcoholic drinks and have sex for her own pleasure during parties at her $4.7 million Los Gatos home in California.
She has now been indicted on 63 charges by a grand jury in Santa Clara, after allegations including drunken joyriding and aiding the sexual penetration of an intoxicated minor were added to the rap sheet.
A judge offered her a 17-year sentence for a guilty plea in May but 24 more charges of child abuse were added to her initial charges and the new charges could leave her facing decades behind bars.
“She’s going to see more time, which is my end goal,” said the mother of one of the teenage victims.
She’s a menace to society and is clearly unwell. The more that comes out about her predatory ways, the better.”
Some of the alleged parties took place at O’Connor’s mansion in Los Gatos as her husband was away, while others were organized at Airbnb locations in Lake Tahoe and Santa Cruz.
O’Connor was very selective about the girls allowed at her parties, often rejecting them if they didn’t meet her standards.
“She would reject girls as guests by saying they weren’t ‘pretty enough’ or didn’t ‘put out’,” court documents state.
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 escaped 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 allege.
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 with 12 underage guests.
An examination of her phone revealed searches for “Good books with young sex,” “hot 16 (year) old teenage girls,” “prettiest 16 year old girl,” and “t*** and a**”.
The alleged victims included male and female Los Gatos High School students, including O’Connor’s own two sons.
After luring the youngsters to her home she allegedly facilitated sexual encounters between minors, both consensual and nonconsensual, while some victims reported that she watched as they were sexually assaulted.
O’Connor’s husband reportedly filed for divorce earlier this year, seemingly unaware of her actions.
Upon learning of the police investigation in 2021, O’Connor fled to Idaho with her sons, where she conducted further Google searches over arrest warrants, statutes of limitations and legal consequences.
They included searches such as: “can I get prosecuted in California if I live in Idaho,” “how do I know if there is a warrant for my arrest,” “supplying alcohol to minors in a private home” and “statute of limitations California,” according to court documents.
She also allegedly attempted to convince her 15-year-old son to not cooperate with investigators.
Seventeen teenagers testified to the grand jury before it increased the number of felonies O’Connor faces from 12 to 20, and the number of misdemeanors from 27 to 43.
O’Connor, who denies the charges, was refused bail and ordered to remain in custody at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Santa Clara, where she has been held since her arrest.
She claims she was assaulted by five inmates at the facility in February.
