*Party mom' gets 35 years for boozy teen sex parties

A Northern California woman who hosted alcohol-fueled parties for her son and other teens and pressured the underage attendees to have sex was sentenced Thursday to 35 years and 10 months in prison.

- BY HANNAH FRY

SHAE HAMMOND Pool Photo

SHANNON O'Connor's attorney Stephen Prekoski, right, said she was trying to improve her son's social life.

Following a four-month criminal trial, a jury in March found Shannon Marie O'Connor - dubbed the Los Gatos "party mom" guilty of 48 charges, including sexual penetration of an intoxicated victim, influencing a child to engage in sexual activity with another child, providing alcohol to a minor, annoying or molesting a child and attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime.

O'Connor, 52, provided vodka, Fireball whiskey, beer and hard seltzers to party attendees, who were mostly 13 to 15 years old, gave them condoms and encouraged them to engage in sexual activity while intoxicated, according to court documents. Prosecutors said she discouraged the teens from telling their parents or police about the parties.

"Ms. O'Connor cast a wide net," Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Peterson said Thursday during a sentencing hearing.

"She groomed, manipulated, provided alcohol to and sexualized successive groups of her son's friends and classmates. When parents became suspicious of her conduct and forbid their children from attending Ms.