Shannon O’Connor, the 51-year-old mother charged with hosting alcohol-fueled parties for teens at her mansion in Los Gatos, is set to spend decades behind bars after a Santa Clara County Superior Court jury found her guilty of the majority of the 63 offenses she’d been charged with.
O’Connor was acquitted of four of the 20 felony charges she faced. In addition to the 14 felony convictions, she was also convicted of 21 misdemeanor charges. The trial ended last week after four months.
She was accused of hosting the parties for teens during the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic.
Two of the felonies for which she was found guilty involved sexual misconduct with an intoxicated teen girl.
She 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..
For the four serious charges for which she was found not guilty, O’Connor was convicted of the lesser offense.
As the verdict was read, the Los Gatos woman 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 multiple incidents 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 s
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 on at these events.
Evidence showed her manipulative behavior began before the coronavirus arrived and continued long after most restrictions had been eased.
In his 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 “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 told reporters. “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.”
“I’m not going to say what [O’Connor] 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.
Rosen thanked the teen victims for being willing to tell their stories over the last six years, as the case progressed—from police investigation, to a fight over bail, to the grand jury and then 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,” Rosen 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.”
“Social media was a factor in the crimes that were committed—and it’s not a positive in terms of this case,” Rosen said at a news conference.
“Now, from a prosecution perspective, it provided us a lot of evidence to convict her.’
