Los Gatos ‘Party Mom’ May See 30 Years in Prison After Guilty Verdict

A Santa Clara County jury on Wednesday returned mostly guilty verdicts against a Los Gatos woman accused of hosting drunken parties with sexual activity for her teenage son and his friends, in what became known as the “Party Mom” case.

A jury convicted Shannon O’Connor of 48 charges, including the most serious charges of sexually assaulting two girls by proxy because she allowed them to get so intoxicated that they were unable to consent. She was also found guilty of additional charges, including annoying and molesting a child and dissuading witnesses from testifying.

At a press conference after the verdict reading, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said O’Connor is likely to face 30 years or more in prison.

“This defendant took advantage of children, manipulated children, hurt children emotionally, mentally, physically and did that for her own perverse reasons,” Rosen said. “And today, there’s justice for what she had done.”

The verdict followed a four-month trial featuring testimony from some of the dozen-plus victims — many of whom were around 14 years old — who were invited to parties O’Connor hosted between 2020 and 2021 at her Los Gatos home, short-term rentals and hotels. Jurors viewed video recordings showing teenagers so intoxicated that they were falling over, vomiting and in some cases, losing consciousness, court records show.

Prosecutors contended that O’Connor not only supplied alcohol but also fostered an environment where minors were vulnerable and facilitated sexual encounters that she sometimes watched.

O’Connor would have rooms available at her parties for the minors to perform sexual acts, and pressure girls to go in, according to a statement of facts by investigator Christina Hanks. At one party in December 2020, O’Connor was present when a boy digitally penetrated a girl in the hot tub while she was so intoxicated that she struggled to keep her head above water, Hanks wrote. At another, she handed an underage boy a condom and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated girl.

The document also shows that O’Connor communicated with the teenagers on Snapchat, encouraging them to lie to their parents and discussing their sexual interests. She bullied and threatened to spread rumors about minors who broke her rule of not telling anyone about the parties.

Throughout the trial, O’Connor’s attorney, Stephen Prekoski, focused on disputing the most serious felony charges, including sexual assault-related charges, annoying and molesting a child charges, witness dissuasion and felony child endangerment.

“It’s obviously not the result we were hoping for,” Prekoski told reporters outside the courthouse on Wednesday. He noted that O’Connor received four favorable verdicts, but said those were not the charges the defense considered their highest priority.

O’Connor was arrested in 2021 in Idaho and was extradited to Santa Clara County, where she has remained in jail for four and a half years. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.

She did not testify at trial. However, in December, she told The Mercury News she intended to create a “safe space” for teenagers struggling during pandemic lockdowns. She acknowledged poor judgment in allowing alcohol but denied criminal intent, arguing that the teens were incentivized to blame her in order to avoid consequences themselves.

With the guilty verdicts, O’Connor now faces decades in prison and will have to register as a sex offender. She will be sentenced later this year.