SAN JOSE — Shannon O’Connor, the former Los Gatos woman charged with running
alcohol-fueled parties for her teen son and his friends — gatherings prosecutors say led to sexual assaults between minors — is speaking publicly from jail as her
criminal trial resumes in the new year.
O’Connor, 51, contacted this news organization from the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas to object to how she has been portrayed, cast herself as a scapegoat for teenagers’ illicit behavior and accuse the court system of bias.
“They were given immunity to point the finger at me so they wouldn’t get in trouble,” O’Connor said during a pair of 15-minute phone calls from jail Dec. 23. “That’s what this is.
“I’m not saying I’m not at all to blame whatsoever,” she added. “It was my alcohol that they got drunk off of. It was my home that they were at. I’ve never said that I was not aware of any alcohol. I’ve never stated that. I did become aware of it. I feel responsible.”
O’Connor said that responsibility stems from a failure to sufficiently intervene in what she described as a scheme in which teens — many of whom are now testifying for the prosecution — smuggled alcohol among themselves or took it from their parents’ liquor cabinets. She said she was trying to provide a safe space for youths struggling with pandemic lockdowns in 2020 but ultimately lost control of the situation.
“It was happening at my house. It was happening at other people’s homes, and it was starting to happen more and more frequently,” O’Connor said. “Teenagers are sneaky. They find their way to things. You know, as soon as you close that door, you’re not one hundred percent positive what’s going to go on … They were punished and grounded on numerous occasions, but they still got into it, and there was really no stopping it.”
Her self-portrayal — as an overwhelmed mother whose efforts spiraled out of control — contrasts sharply with the charges she faces:
20 felony counts related to child endangerment and 43 misdemeanor counts of furnishing alcohol to minors. The charges were filed in a 2023 grand jury indictment that superseded her original 2021 case. Opening statements were delivered in early December.
A parent of one of the Jane Does named as a teenage victim in the case called O’Connor’s claims “unbelievable.”
“She’s a master manipulator and she’s looking to make this sound less intense or less troubling than it absolutely was,” said the parent, whose identity is being withheld to protect the privacy of their child. “She absolutely pushed, shared, purchased alcohol, showed these children how to drink like rock stars, and then when they were incredibly inebriated, absolutely directed them like a movie producer — what they should do and with whom.”
Prosecutors accuse O’Connor of facilitating the parties over roughly two years — at her home and at lodges and hotels — taking alcohol orders for minors and inserting herself into the teens’ social and sexual lives. They allege she pressured girls to engage in sexual activity with boys and is criminally liable for multiple sexual assaults involving intoxicated minors.
According to court records, the gatherings raised alarms among other parents after teens began coming home heavily intoxicated or injured. As a police investigation loomed,
O’Connor moved with her children to Idaho, where she was later arrested.
The charges include graphic allegations, including one girl who told investigators she nearly drowned in a hot tub while being sexually assaulted, with O’Connor present. Another allegation describes a drunken joyride in which a teen boy suffered a serious head injury after falling from an SUV reportedly driven by O’Connor in the Los Gatos High School parking lot. Prosecutors say she then posed as the boy’s mother to deflect a responding police officer.
O’Connor contends her indictment relied in part on seized cellphone records that exceeded the scope of a search warrant and said she is seeking a mistrial. She also accused trial Judge Elizabeth Peterson of bias for granting prosecution evidentiary motions after testimony had begun.
“That’s really what I wanted to get out there,” O’Connor said.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office declined to respond directly to her remarks.
“The defendant stands accused of serious crimes against children, and that case is receiving evidence and witness testimony in an ongoing jury trial,” the office said in a statement. “We will continue to try the case in Courtroom 39 at the Hall of Justice and not elsewhere, despite the comments of the defendant outside of court.”
Prosecutors have also pointed to
group text messages and Snapchat communications that they say show O’Connor’s fascination with the sex lives of her son’s friend group, dating back to before they were teenagers.
In
testimony Dec. 17, a prosecution witness identified as Jane Doe 11 said O’Connor asked girls as young as 12 about their sexual interests and experiences. As the group got older, Doe testified, conversations appeared designed to “normalize sex” and escalated to O’Connor allegedly telling a girl dating her son that he could become suicidal if she did not satisfy him sexually.
O’Connor called that a distortion, citing cross-examination in which Doe 11 acknowledged O’Connor had not explicitly pressured her into drinking or sex. She said her intent was more benign.
“I’m trying to be a concerned mother,” O’Connor said. “I knew that these kids were drinking. I knew these kids were having sexual relations, whatever that may be. I was trying to make sure that they were being safe. People can look at that a few different ways.”
In 2023, O’Connor explored a potential guilty plea but withdrew after Judge Peterson said the resulting sentence would be 17 years. The grand jury indictment that followed increased the charges from 39 to 63 and raised her potential maximum sentence to more than 30 years. A conviction on all counts would also require her to register as a sex offender.
“When she says she was trying to stop this, I don’t believe that at all,” the parent said. “She was actively picking kids up in the middle of the night when we all thought they were sleeping in their beds in our homes.”
The parent added that O’Connor left the community after parents began sharing concerns with one another and law enforcement.
There is some overlap between O’Connor’s account and prosecutors’ claims that she exerted heavy influence over her son’s social life. O’Connor acknowledged those efforts were misguided.
“If I had told their parents, there was a good chance that nobody would want to hang out with him anymore, and I made the wrong decision,” she said. “I leaned more towards that than doing the responsible thing as a parent and telling other parents, and I’ll be the first one to admit that.”
The trial paused Dec. 19 and is scheduled to resume Monday. Judge Peterson has indicated it could stretch into March.
“It’s really unbelievable to me that after five years, this woman … still has no understanding or acknowledgment, no self-realization of the damage she did to these individual boys and girls, to her own sons and to the community,” the parent said. “The whole thing has been a living nightmare for all of us.”
