A 47-year-old Los Gatos mother accused of internet hosting drunken, sex-fueled events for her teenage son and his pals was denied bail Wednesday.
Shannon O’Connor, also referred to as Shannon Bruga, made her first courtroom look yesterday. On the arraignment in a Santa Clara courtroom, a choose issued 15 protecting orders for folks authorities say had been victims, together with one in every of her two teenage sons, the San Jose Mercury Information reported.
Protection lawyer Sam Polverino argued that the prosecution’s profitable request to disclaim bail for his consumer denied her rights and was “inconsistent with due course of,” the Mercury Information mentioned. She was scheduled to enter a plea Dec. 17.
Bruga was extradited to California on Tuesday to face 39 felony and misdemeanor prices, together with youngster abuse, sexual assault, sexual battery, youngster molestation and offering alcohol to minors, the Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned. She faces incarceration if she is convicted. She was additionally hit with three extra prices of grand theft tied to $120,000 in unauthorized prices on firm bank cards from her former employer, together with funds for clothes, limousine rides and alcohol supply to her house.
O’Connor allegedly threw events for highschool college students within the Silicon Valley group of Los Gatos, Calif., the place she served copious quantities of alcohol, inspired youngsters to have intercourse and generally watched the sexual acts, the prosecution mentioned.
She “purchased vodka and Fireball whiskey, offered condoms, and discouraged the teenagers from telling their mother and father concerning the events or calling for assist when one in every of them handed out in their very own vomit,” a press release of details alleged.
At one occasion at her Los Gatos house in December, authorities mentioned, O’Connor handed a condom to a boy and pushed him right into a room with an intoxicated woman. Each had been minors. The woman was in a position to get away and locked herself within the toilet, Santa Clara County District Lawyer investigator Christina Hanks detailed in courtroom filings.
The events had been held throughout an 11-month interval spanning 2020 to 2021 and had been primarily attended by 14- and 15-year-olds, the workplace mentioned.
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union Excessive College District launched a press release in response to O’Connor’s arrest stating that pupil security is a prime precedence.
“It is very important be aware that we take the subject of underage consuming very severely and work constantly to advertise consciousness and dialogue in our lecture rooms and our group,” the assertion mentioned. “Moreover, mother and father and households additionally play a vital function in setting clear expectations for the conduct of our younger folks and in monitoring their actions. Solely collectively can we successfully handle social points comparable to substance abuse.”
O’Connor most not too long ago lived in a suburb of Boise, Idaho, and when officers arrested her at her house in Star, “there have been 10 underage boys and two women at her house — most of whom spent the night time there,” the Ada County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned within the information launch. Investigators referred to as the mother and father of these teenagers earlier than releasing them.
Detectives with the sheriff’s workplace mentioned O’Connor might have additionally been holding events for youngsters in Idaho.
The Related Press contributed to this story.
