Exclusive: Los Gatos ‘party mom’ indicted by grand jury, clearing way for trial

A Santa Clara County criminal grand jury has indicted the so-called Los Gatos “party mom” on more than five dozen felony and misdemeanor charges, clearing the path to trial for Shannon O’Connor, who is alleged to have endangered teens with liquor-fueled gatherings, where she goaded them into sex.

The indictment was handed down Monday and charges O’Connor, 49, with 20 felony counts mostly covering child endangerment and aiding and abetting sexual assault, as well as 43 misdemeanor counts based on accusations she furnished alcohol to minors. It follows multiple delays of a preliminary hearing in O’Connor’s case, in which a judge would have decided whether there was sufficient evidence to go to trial.

Now with the indictment, the case bypasses the preliminary examination and moves more rapidly to trial. O’Connor, who is being held in Santa Clara County Jail, was scheduled to appear in court Monday for the latest preliminary hearing. That court appearance will now be an arraignment on the indictment charges.

So why did prosecutors convene a criminal grand jury to spur trial proceedings when they could have done so at the preliminary examination set to start in a week?

Deputy District Attorney Rebekah Wise said her office wanted to shield the victims in the case, all minors at the time the alleged crimes were reported in 2020, from having to experience more stops and starts of having to travel to court and prepare for testimony only to be sent home because of another delay, and have to go through that cycle all over again.

“The preliminary (hearing) had been pushed back multiple times, and for the minor victims, their anxiety gets ramped up. We’re retraumatizing them by getting them thinking they’re going to the hearing and then it gets continued,” Wise told this news organization.

“These crimes were committed in 2020, and it took a year to file (charges), and it’s been two years since her arrest, so that’s three years since these crimes,” she added. “For the victims and their healing process, having this hang over their head, we just needed for their sake to get past this preliminary point. Now what we’re looking forward to is the jury trial.”

According to the indictment, 17 reported victims — listed as John and Jane Does — testified at the grand jury hearing, which is held in secret, and run entirely by the prosecution, without the involvement of the defendant’s counsel or any cross examination of witnesses.

In the past two years, O’Connor’s path to the preliminary examination has been beset by delays for wide range of reasons, most recently in August when a medical issue — thought to have been spider bites or an MRSA skin infection — prompted a continuance.

Back in April, just as the hearing was supposed to get underway, O’Connor asked the judge to reveal what sentence she’d receive if she pleaded guilty as charged. That led to a hearing in which prosecutors presented evidence from the teen victims and their parents on how O’Connor had harmed them.

The judge in May said O’Connor’s sentence would be 17 years and four months if she pleaded to the initial charges — just shy of the 20-year maximum. O’Connor opted to proceed with the preliminary hearing that was rescheduled to August then subsequently pushed to next week.