Shannon O’Connor, the mother charged with hosting alcohol-fueled parties for teens at her mansion in Los Gatos and orchestrating the sex lives of the youth in her orbit, is set to spend decades behind bars after a jury rendered its verdict today in Santa Clara County Superior Court—finding her guilty of the majority of the 63 offenses she’d been charged with.
While it was essentially a foregone conclusion she would be convicted of at least some of the furnishing-alcohol-for-a-minor charges, O’Connor was also found guilty of two counts of sexual penetration of an intoxicated victim, for influencing a child to engage in sexual activity with another child on multiple occasions.
In addition, after the four-month trial, the defendant was convicted of multiple counts of felony and misdemeanor child endangerment, providing alcoholic beverages to a minor and annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18, as well as a single count of attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime.
She was found not guilty of Count 5, child endangerment with the risk of causing great bodily injury to anonymous witness John Doe 2 on Sept. 18, 2020, and also not guilty of Count 25, the lesser included count for that incident.
However, for every other serious charge for which she was found not guilty, O’Connor was convicted of the lesser offense.
For example, for Count 4, O’Connor was found not guilty of child endangerment with the risk of that leading to great bodily injury (to John Doe 2 on Sept. 18, 2020), but was found guilty of Count 25 instead—misdemeanor child abuse for what happened that day.
Shannon O’Connor looked neat in a black jacket with a ponytail done up in the back of her head, which she flipped over her right shoulder. At times she looked up at the judge and then back down in front of her.
“This is justice for the people of the state of California,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen, speaking to reporters outside the Hall of Justice in San Jose. “I think that for the folks that live in Los Gatos, this is a really good day.”
The criminal activity occurred at the property she owned with tech executive husband Robert Amaral in Los Gatos, but also at out-of-town rentals in Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe, amongst other sites.
Victims described being lured over social media apps and via text messages to hang out at get-togethers with peers during the pandemic, when other options were limited, as well as enticed with the promise of flying on a private jet.
Parents testified that Shannon O’Connor would provide expensive gifts to their child and concealed what was really going at these events.
Evidence showed her manipulative behavior began before the Coronavirus crisis arrived and continued long after most restrictions had been eased.
In his animated closing arguments, defense lawyer Stephen Prekoski conceded the furnishing alcohol charges, but vehemently opposed the fact that the DA’s Office had charged his client with PC 289(e) “Sexual penetration by foreign object upon an intoxicated victim”, given she had not been accused of doing these acts herself.
“She was charged alternatively as an ‘aider and abettor’ or as the employer of an innocent agent—it’s like a dupe,” he said. “My client did not…sexually assault, personally, the children. The District Attorney employed, as I said, what I call attenuated theories of liability. Nonetheless, the jury convicted her of those.”
And what was O’Connor’s reaction to the results of days of juror deliberations.
“I’m not going to say what she said to me; but she said some things to me, as the verdicts were progressing, that made me understand that she was deeply disappointed in the decision,” Prekoski said, adding only about four of the decisions could be considered favorable. “The not-guilty’s that we achieved were not the not-guilty’s that we particularly argued for as our highest priority…I failed.”
Rosen thanked the youth victimized by Shannon O’Connor for being willing to tell their stories over the last six years, as the case progressed—from police investigation, to bail fight, to Grand Jury, to trial.
“It was a long wait. It was a long trial. There was a lot of hardship, and pain—and suffering. But with the jury’s verdict today there is now justice,” he said. “We expect, as parents, that we protect children—protect our children, protect other people’s children. This defendant took advantage of children, manipulated children, hurt children—emotionally, mentally, physically—and did that for her own perverse reasons.”
When asked by the Los Gatan what the trial says about the use of technology—such as Snapchat and Instagram—which O’Connor used to form deep bonds with the victims, as well as to organize events away from the watchful eyes of parents—Rosen said it was like a double-edged sword.
“Social media was a factor in the crimes that were committed—and it’s not a positive in terms of this case,” Rosen said, as shouting filtered down from the high-rise jail next door. “Now, from a prosecution perspective, it provided us a lot of evidence to convict her. But our goal in the DA’s Office is not that there should be a crime so that we can convict someone, really our goal is for there not to be a crime in the first place. And so, to the extent that social media facilitated this criminal activity, I think that’s a very bad thing.”
