UPDATE: Mom Accused Of Hosting Drunken Teen Sex Parties Suspected Of Throwing Similar Parties In Idaho
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Shannon O'Connor, the woman jailed after police say she threw drunken teen sex parties at her Los Gatos home as well as at residences in Santa Cruz and the Lake Tahoe area, is also suspected of hosting similar parties in Idaho where she was arrested last weekend.
The 47-year-old O'Connor, also known as Shannon Bruga, was arrested Saturday in Star, Idaho, northeast of Boise, where she and her two teenage sons moved to earlier this year. She currently faces 39 charges including felony child endangerment, sexual battery, annoying or molesting a child, and providing alcohol to a person under age 21.
During parties O'Connor hosted between June 2020 and May of this year, she allegedly provided condoms to 14- and 15-years-olds and encouraged sex acts, "sometimes non-consensual, and sometimes while she watched," according to a news release from the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office. A statement of facts filed in the case said she "discouraged the teens from telling their parents about the parties or calling for help when one of them passed out in their own vomit."
At one party at her home, O'Connor allegedly gave an underage teenager a condom and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated minor. During a New Year's Eve party at her home with about five 14-year-olds, the defendant watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually battered a young girl in bed, according to the court documents. In some cases, O'Connor would Snapchat or text teens to leave their homes in the middle of the night and drink at her home, providing the alcohol.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office said in a press release deputies were investigating O'Connor after an Idaho family contacted reported O'Connor was harassing them. The family told investigators the harassment began after they met with O'Connor when she was looking for a home in Idaho but then tried to sever ties with her after finding out she was part of a sexual abuse investigation.
The investigation was ongoing when the arrest warrant for O'Connor was issued in Santa Clara County. When detectives arrived Saturday morning at her Star home, they found "there were 10 underage boys and two girls at her home — most of whom spent the night there," according to a sheriff's office news release. Investigators contacted the parents of those teens before releasing them.
During a court hearing on Wednesday, O'Connor said she intended to post a $900,000 bond attached to the California arrest warrant. Her two teenage sons were placed in the custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare after the sheriff's office deemed they were in "imminent danger," according to the release.
Additionally, O'Connor faces felony fraud charges in a separate case for making more than $120,000 in unauthorized charges on a company card she was given as an administrative assistant for Aruba Networks.
"What I'm seeing here is only the tip of this investigation," legal analyst and former prosecutor Steven Clark told KPIX 5. "I think you could see even more serious charges being put on Ms. O'Connor as this case progresses, particularly, if minors were being sexually assaulted."
Clark said. "I think you could see even more serious charges being put on Ms. O'Connor as this case progresses, particularly, if minors were being sexually assaulted."