A mother accused of throwing alcohol-fueled sex parties for underage teens at her former Los Gatos home pleaded not guilty in a San Jose courtroom Monday.
Shannon O'Connor, also known as Shannon Bruga, has been behind bars since last October and will remain in custody as she awaits trial on 39 felony and misdemeanor charges, including child endangerment, child molestation and sexual assault.
Parents claim O'Connor tried to groom their underage daughters for her son and his friends, taking alcohol orders from girls and secretly driving them to parties in the middle of the night as their parents slept.
A mother who said her 14-year-old daughter was a victim of O'Connor's spoke with NBC Bay Area after the hearing.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
"She has good days and bad days; I'm trying to let her be a regular teenager," said the mom, who did not want to be identified. "I'd like her to forget about all of this, but we can't, right? Because we have to make sure this woman is held accountable for the crimes she committed and the people she manipulated .. and they're all children, including her own. She's a real monster, a menace to society … and she should not be on the streets."
One young victim was at the hearing Monday and turned down an opportunity to address the court.
When asked about O'Connor's defense, her attorney declined to answer.
O'Connor was arrested in Idaho in October, but NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit found Los Gatos High School and Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police officials knew about her behavior at least 10 months before that. She was denied bail in February.
O'Connor is scheduled to appear in court again Dec. 12, and preliminary hearings for her trial begin Jan. 23.
Parents wish the court would move faster on the case.
"Our kids and we have been living this nightmare for two years now and it’s just uphauling to me that justice moves so slowly," the mother said.
