Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 'COOL MOM' Has Teens Young as 13 to DRINK, PERFORM SEX ACTS at 'Parties': CONVICTED
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It's Friday night and it's
- 0:08Speaker 1: time for a Crime Stories Friday Night special. And boy
- 0:12Speaker 1: is a special. It's the Big Dollhouse for the so
- 0:16Speaker 1: called cool mom after she throws parties and coerces miners
- 0:24Speaker 1: as young as thirteen years old to drink, get drunk
- 0:29Speaker 1: and perform sex acts. What's cool about that? Well, she
- 0:35Speaker 1: is looking at substantial jail time and she'll have time
- 0:39Speaker 1: to think about what she's done. I'm Nancy Grace. This
- 0:43Speaker 1: is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being
- 0:45Speaker 1: with us.
- 0:46Speaker 2: This defendant took advantage of children, manipulated children, her children emotionally, mentally, physically,
- 0:59Speaker 2: and did that for her own perverse reasons. And today
- 1:05Speaker 2: there's justice for what she had done.
- 1:08Speaker 1: In the last days, a jury brings down the hammer
- 1:11Speaker 1: on the so called cool mom, Shannon O'Connor, finding her
- 1:15Speaker 1: guilty of forty seven crimes, and she is facing decades
- 1:22Speaker 1: behind bars.
- 1:23Speaker 2: The charges included child endangerment, annoying and molesting a child,
- 1:31Speaker 2: dissuading witnesses from testifying, and facilitating the forcible sexual assault
- 1:39Speaker 2: from one child on another child.
- 1:43Speaker 1: That's right. Shannon O'Connor, the mom charged with hosting booze
- 1:48Speaker 1: soaked parties for teens as young as thirteen at her
- 1:51Speaker 1: mansion in Los Gato's, orchestrating sex between the youth now
- 1:58Speaker 1: looking at decade behind bars. What the hey? This woman
- 2:04Speaker 1: has a beautiful mansion, a gorgeous family everything. Why this?
- 2:10Speaker 1: I can't help but think about the movie Main Girls
- 2:15Speaker 1: with Landsay Loham and the cool mom would just let
- 2:20Speaker 1: the girls do whatever they want to. She has a
- 2:23Speaker 1: little made herself and played into drugs and alcohol and sex. Well,
- 2:32Speaker 1: art imitates life. Take a listen to our friends at NBC.
- 2:36Speaker 3: The first complaint about Shannon O'Connor to Los Gatto's High
- 2:39Speaker 3: School came from a parent in December twenty twenty. According
- 2:42Speaker 3: to internal school emails obtained exclusively by the Investigative Unit,
- 2:46Speaker 3: Shannon Bruga or O'Connor buys alcohol for teenagers. My daughter
- 2:50Speaker 3: overdosed on edibles then entering. Principal Paul Robinson responded the
- 2:54Speaker 3: same day, we will follow up on this and inform
- 2:57Speaker 3: the police. Two months later, February seventeen, a different parent
- 3:01Speaker 3: sent an assistant principal a detailed, multi page email saying
- 3:04Speaker 3: she had just filed a police report. Alleging criminal contact
- 3:08Speaker 3: by O'Connor with her child and at least five other
- 3:11Speaker 3: fourteen year old girls, as well as at least one
- 3:13Speaker 3: Fisher middle school student.
- 3:15Speaker 1: A middle school student, fourteen year old girls going to
- 3:20Speaker 1: sex and booze stoked parties, and criminal contact by the
- 3:26Speaker 1: cool mom with a girl student aged fourteen? What in
- 3:32Speaker 1: the hey with me at all Star panel to makes
- 3:35Speaker 1: sense of what we know right now? But first I
- 3:38Speaker 1: want to go to Drew Penner, investigative reporter with the
- 3:41Speaker 1: Losgatta newspaper. Drew, thank you for being with us. Who
- 3:46Speaker 1: is this quote? Cool mom? Doesn't sound cool to me,
- 3:49Speaker 1: it sounds criminal. Does she have a child?
- 3:51Speaker 4: Oh yeah, definitely. This is Shannon O'Connor. And she has
- 3:56Speaker 4: other names that she's gone by in the past, Shannon brew, Chennon, Amarol.
- 4:02Speaker 4: But she is a local woman here from the Los
- 4:06Speaker 4: Gatos area and that's in Silicon Valley, and she gained
- 4:12Speaker 4: a reputation over the months for being, as you said,
- 4:17Speaker 4: someone that would have parties and someone who would invite
- 4:22Speaker 4: folks over to her house that were younger than maybe
- 4:25Speaker 4: you would invite over to your host And that's putting
- 4:27Speaker 4: it lightly.
- 4:28Speaker 1: And she does have children. She's got two teen sons,
- 4:31Speaker 1: thirteen and fifteen. And you know to doctor Angie Arnold,
- 4:36Speaker 1: renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. You
- 4:39Speaker 1: can find her at Angelo Arnold MD dot com. You
- 4:43Speaker 1: heard what Drew Panter just told us that everybody in
- 4:47Speaker 1: the neighborhood knew rumor gossip. They knew what was going on,
- 4:51Speaker 1: but did anybody stop it, not until things got even
- 4:55Speaker 1: more out of hand. In addition to what Drew Pinner
- 4:57Speaker 1: told us, Angie, how many times have I told the children,
- 5:03Speaker 1: starting at a very young age, about drugs and alcohol
- 5:07Speaker 1: all the time? What it does to you? Cases I've
- 5:09Speaker 1: seen in court specifically, I remember when I was a
- 5:14Speaker 1: brand new assistant district attorney. I was taking a guilty
- 5:17Speaker 1: plea of this beautiful woman and she was taking a
- 5:22Speaker 1: plea duy HV habitual violator, And I looked around for
- 5:29Speaker 1: her family. There was no family, but I knew she
- 5:32Speaker 1: was married with three children. Alcohol cost her her stockbroker's
- 5:37Speaker 1: license that she worked so hard for, had worked her
- 5:40Speaker 1: way up the ladder in that business. She had a
- 5:46Speaker 1: horrible car crash when drunk. Her husband divorced her and
- 5:50Speaker 1: he got custody of three children because of alcohol. And
- 5:54Speaker 1: I remember she just stood there in court just like
- 5:58Speaker 1: she was numb, Like she didn't even cry. You know,
- 6:03Speaker 1: like when you take the dog to the vet and
- 6:05Speaker 1: they have to get a shot and they sit on
- 6:07Speaker 1: the table. They know something bad it's about to happen,
- 6:10Speaker 1: but they just sit there stoically. That's what she looked like.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Alcohol And this is a mom with teens throwing this
- 6:19Speaker 1: kind of party, not just alcohol, but drugs and sex.
- 6:24Speaker 5: So Niki would why would no one have said anything?
- 6:28Speaker 5: Because look at all of the other people that can
- 6:31Speaker 5: be hurt by not saying anything, starting with the offender.
- 6:37Speaker 5: She needed help?
- 6:39Speaker 1: Okay, you know why did I ask you a question?
- 6:43Speaker 1: She does not need help. She needs jail because these
- 6:47Speaker 1: aren't just wild parties. This is sex, assault, child molesstation, felony,
- 6:55Speaker 1: child endangerment. So I don't know what you're talking about.
- 6:59Speaker 1: She needs help, well, she needs an a nice long
- 7:03Speaker 1: vacation in the pen in the big dollhouse so she
- 7:07Speaker 1: can think about her actions.
- 7:09Speaker 5: But Nancy, at the very least, if the neighbors knew
- 7:12Speaker 5: what was going on, and they didn't know the extent
- 7:14Speaker 5: to what was going on.
- 7:15Speaker 1: Oh please, have you ever seen Bewitched? Yes? No, have you?
- 7:20Speaker 1: And you're familiar with Gladys Kravitz, right, the nosy neighbor
- 7:23Speaker 1: who knows everything you want to tell me. These neighbors
- 7:26Speaker 1: didn't know exactly what was happening, hearing teams screaming and
- 7:30Speaker 1: cavorting in the backyard around the keg. Oh they knew,
- 7:34Speaker 1: but this is my question. Drew Penner back to Loscota newspaper, Drew,
- 7:39Speaker 1: I understand that the first complaints were made to the
- 7:42Speaker 1: school principle and did an assistant principle? Is that correct?
- 7:47Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, this.
- 7:48Speaker 4: Has been an interesting case in our town because it's
- 7:52Speaker 4: sparked off a whole discussion around what we do, you know,
- 7:55Speaker 4: when people are having parties in their own private home.
- 7:58Speaker 4: But then it's you know, the the ramifications can spill
- 8:01Speaker 4: out into the public sphere, including as you mentioned, at
- 8:04Speaker 4: the high school. And you know, there's stories that we're
- 8:09Speaker 4: hearing and that have come out through the you know,
- 8:11Speaker 4: throughout the various discussions that we've been hearing. Is that basically,
- 8:16Speaker 4: you know, Shan O'Connor had a really good way of
- 8:20Speaker 4: manipulating the whole situation. Basically, you know, being able to
- 8:25Speaker 4: spin things one way and in fact enlisting the children
- 8:29Speaker 4: that she was inviting and many say manipulating over to
- 8:33Speaker 4: her house into kind of going on the forefront and
- 8:36Speaker 4: helping her spread false stories in order to continue her behavior.
- 8:41Speaker 4: And you know, that's something that we hear time and
- 8:44Speaker 4: time again, and you know, the extent to which perhaps
- 8:48Speaker 4: the authorities at the school should have done more. That's
- 8:51Speaker 4: been a hot button issue, spilled out over into even
- 8:54Speaker 4: the local councils come up indirectly as well. And yeah,
- 8:58Speaker 4: it's been the talk of the town.
- 9:00Speaker 1: US A really good point. I'm going to go to Annisinota,
- 9:03Speaker 1: a child grooming expert, but first let me just swing
- 9:06Speaker 1: to Sam do'ordulian. He is a renowned attorney, former La
- 9:13Speaker 1: County prosecutor, and founder of the Dordulian Law Group. You
- 9:18Speaker 1: can find him at d lawgroup dot com. Sam, thanks
- 9:21Speaker 1: for being with us, just thinking through what Drew Pinner
- 9:25Speaker 1: told us from the Lost Gotten. You know, Sam, here's
- 9:29Speaker 1: the rub, here's the fly in the ointment. So you
- 9:32Speaker 1: have the parents, they are speaking out to the wrong person.
- 9:37Speaker 1: They contact the school principal and the assistant principle. So
- 9:43Speaker 1: do they get the idea they're doing the right thing,
- 9:47Speaker 1: and how much can a school really control what students
- 9:51Speaker 1: or quote cool moms are doing off school premises. Sam Drdoulian, Yeah.
- 9:57Speaker 7: Nancy, And actually that's that's a good question. Why didn't
- 10:00Speaker 7: they call the police? And I think it's a lot
- 10:02Speaker 7: to do with who this person is. If this was
- 10:05Speaker 7: a male, if this was a male, if this is
- 10:08Speaker 7: a teacher, if this was a coach, a male coach,
- 10:11Speaker 7: I think people would react differently because she's a woman,
- 10:14Speaker 7: because she's a mom. In particular, I think they're treating
- 10:17Speaker 7: it differently. They're contacting the school instead of contacting the police.
- 10:21Speaker 7: I mean, you brought up the word grooming. This is
- 10:23Speaker 7: the definition of grooming. It doesn't have to be a
- 10:26Speaker 7: male teacher or a coach or a priest. She was
- 10:29Speaker 7: grooming not just the children, but the other parents, the
- 10:32Speaker 7: whole community with her conduct. So I think that a
- 10:36Speaker 7: lot has to do with who she is as as
- 10:38Speaker 7: a woman and as a mom.
- 10:40Speaker 1: Oh you know, you just struck me to the core
- 10:41Speaker 1: as a mom, because you know, Anna Sonota going from
- 10:47Speaker 1: Sam Dordoulian, doctor Angie Arnold, Andrew Panner. Let me tell
- 10:53Speaker 1: you who Anna Sinoda is childreaming expert, clinical social worker,
- 10:58Speaker 1: author of Dutton du Groom Understanding How a child becomes
- 11:02Speaker 1: a target, and you can find her at Annasnoda dot com. Anna,
- 11:08Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen to our friend
- 11:12Speaker 1: Amanda del Castillo.
- 11:14Speaker 8: Shannon O'Connor, the Lost Gotis mother, was accused of throwing
- 11:18Speaker 8: drunken parties where she encouraged young teens to participate in
- 11:21Speaker 8: sex acts, sometimes non consensual and sometimes while she watched.
- 11:26Speaker 8: The teens, mostly fourteen and fifteen years old, included her
- 11:29Speaker 8: own son. O'Connor would use Snapchat or text to invite
- 11:32Speaker 8: them to her home, warning the teens to keep silent
- 11:35Speaker 8: or she could go to jail.
- 11:36Speaker 1: It's not exactly your classic grooming, but it has all
- 11:41Speaker 1: the elements of a classic grooming, luring, desensitizing the victim,
- 11:48Speaker 1: where this little fourteen year old girl says, well everybody
- 11:51Speaker 1: else is doing it. The mom is saying, they're watching
- 11:54Speaker 1: me having a sex act with her son, so maybe
- 11:58Speaker 1: it's not as bad as I thought because the moms
- 12:00Speaker 1: it's okay, and then getting them getting a vow of
- 12:04Speaker 1: silence warning them not to speak out.
- 12:07Speaker 9: Fancy. This is a gruesome gruesome example of grooming, and
- 12:11Speaker 9: just so that everybody's on the same page. Grooming is
- 12:14Speaker 9: the intentional and selective process of using assumed trust to
- 12:18Speaker 9: gain access and space with an identified prey. And it
- 12:22Speaker 9: is a process of entrapping a child. So we've got
- 12:25Speaker 9: to set the trap with compliments. These children were selected.
- 12:29Speaker 9: She was pre vetting the girls who are attending these parties.
- 12:32Speaker 9: Then you've got to bait the trap with favors, so
- 12:34Speaker 9: giving the kids things they want, like access to free
- 12:38Speaker 9: food alcohol. Then you've essentially rigged the trap with guilt.
- 12:43Speaker 9: Here are these kids who are breaking rules that their
- 12:46Speaker 9: parents have for them. And then you've got to keep
- 12:48Speaker 9: that trap shut with threats. You can't tell anybody, keep
- 12:51Speaker 9: this a secret. So worse than being a cool mom,
- 12:54Speaker 9: she was perceived and the community defaulted to her being
- 12:57Speaker 9: a safe mom. And she was the one who was
- 13:00Speaker 9: communicating with other parents to confirm that she would be
- 13:03Speaker 9: in attendance and she would be supervising. And this is
- 13:06Speaker 9: why parents need to keep a keen eye to show
- 13:09Speaker 9: up at places where their kids are going and when
- 13:11Speaker 9: in doubt, verified, even if it means showing.
- 13:14Speaker 1: Up crime stories With Nancy Grace, most legal legals thought
- 13:27Speaker 1: it was a foregone conclusion O'Connor would be convicted of
- 13:30Speaker 1: at least one or two counts of furnishing alcohol to
- 13:33Speaker 1: a minor, but she was found guilty on forty seven charges,
- 13:40Speaker 1: including sex penetration of an intoxicated victim, let that sink
- 13:46Speaker 1: in for influencing a child to engage in sex activity
- 13:50Speaker 1: with another child on multiple occasions. It was a four
- 13:56Speaker 1: month trial. What did we learn?
- 14:00Speaker 2: It was a long wait. It was a long trial.
- 14:04Speaker 2: There was a lot of hardship and pain and suffering.
- 14:11Speaker 2: But with the jury's verdict today, there is now justice.
- 14:16Speaker 1: What happened? Michael Boton joining me former NYPD sergeant, detective
- 14:21Speaker 1: Squad supervisor, a special Victims unit owner, our First Rate
- 14:27Speaker 1: Investigations and that specializes an adult and child survivor civil
- 14:33Speaker 1: cases at First Rate Investigations and consulting dot com. That
- 14:38Speaker 1: is a mouthful, Michael Bock. I want you to change
- 14:41Speaker 1: that website immediately. Hey, Michael, I know you've dealt with
- 14:45Speaker 1: a lot of cases where adults molested children. I rarely
- 14:50Speaker 1: see I don't know that I've ever seen. I got
- 14:53Speaker 1: to think this thing through. I've seen female sex predators
- 14:57Speaker 1: on children, but for a month, I'm a cool mom.
- 15:01Speaker 1: And I'm talking about Amy Polar, who I adore. Amy
- 15:07Speaker 1: Polar who played the cool mom June George in Mean Girls. Hilarious.
- 15:16Speaker 1: But this is not funny in the least, Michael bog
- 15:20Speaker 1: have you ever seen a case where the mom lures
- 15:24Speaker 1: in the child's victims to have sex with tea boys
- 15:29Speaker 1: while she sits there and watches.
- 15:31Speaker 6: It's not a frequent occurrence, especially inside the city. I'd
- 15:36Speaker 6: say this is probably more of a suburban issue than
- 15:39Speaker 6: it would be inside the city with apartments and stuff,
- 15:42Speaker 6: So it's not a common case that we would come
- 15:44Speaker 6: across in the city.
- 15:45Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever come across anything quite like it.
- 15:48Speaker 1: And these people, Michael Bock, I mean, this is Silicon
- 15:52Speaker 1: Valley with all of that tech money just rolling around.
- 15:57Speaker 1: The median income in this area is one hundred, one
- 16:02Speaker 1: hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars. That's the meaning, that's
- 16:06Speaker 1: big money. Yeah, they've got a lot of money to
- 16:08Speaker 1: roll around in and a lot of money to throw
- 16:11Speaker 1: parties with for children. I mean, doctor Angie, you hear
- 16:15Speaker 1: Michael Buck speaking. What frame of mind is that where
- 16:19Speaker 1: a grown woman gets sex gratification off of watching little
- 16:25Speaker 1: girls and teen boys have sex in her home.
- 16:29Speaker 5: Oh, Nancy, this is such a horrible subject, isn't it.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Yes, but I was expecting a little something a little
- 16:35Speaker 1: more clinical from you than this is horrible. Yeah, I
- 16:37Speaker 1: know it's horrible. I can ask anybody on the street that, doctor, Angie,
- 16:41Speaker 1: I know it's horrible. But what is what kind of
- 16:44Speaker 1: a criminal mind?
- 16:45Speaker 5: Is that these kind of people can suffer from a
- 16:47Speaker 5: very low self esteem?
- 16:48Speaker 1: Oh, dear Lord in Heaven, are low self esteem?
- 16:52Speaker 6: Well?
- 16:52Speaker 5: I mean, Nancy, this is you ask for a definition.
- 16:55Speaker 1: She's a child molester?
- 16:57Speaker 5: Well, okay, but we have to kind of look at
- 17:01Speaker 5: all of the things that can. First of all, female
- 17:04Speaker 5: child predators are on the rare side.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Okay.
- 17:09Speaker 5: They can have antisocial personality disorder, they can have very
- 17:14Speaker 5: poor social skills. They can have PTSD from something or another.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Don't even try to make me feel badly for her
- 17:24Speaker 1: rejection low self esteem? I am about child molester. Here
- 17:29Speaker 1: is doctor Jackie, and you're waving a sign saying voyeurism. Okay,
- 17:34Speaker 1: you know what that is? Right? Doctor and Jimmy, you
- 17:36Speaker 1: are the strange now to be a psychiatrist. Don't you
- 17:38Speaker 1: have to be a medical doctor and a psychiatrist.
- 17:41Speaker 5: I'm a medical doctor, okay.
- 17:42Speaker 1: And I'm having to tell you the word voyeurism.
- 17:45Speaker 5: And Nancy, I've had to treat women who were female
- 17:50Speaker 5: sexual predators. I've treated only a very few, because only
- 17:55Speaker 5: a very few exempts.
- 17:56Speaker 1: What is wrong with them? Not that the state has
- 17:59Speaker 1: to prise the mode or kick around inside the mind
- 18:02Speaker 1: of a perpetrator. But it's very hard for me to
- 18:05Speaker 1: take in. I know it exists, but it's hard for
- 18:08Speaker 1: me to take in.
- 18:08Speaker 5: But doesn't it also sound like this woman, this particular criminal,
- 18:14Speaker 5: was exerting a lot of control over her victims. They
- 18:19Speaker 5: were very young. She's forty seven, they're thirteen and fourteen
- 18:23Speaker 5: years old. You know, she's got to be getting some
- 18:27Speaker 5: sort of sexual pleasure out of this at the very baseline.
- 18:31Speaker 1: I've already said that. That was my question that I
- 18:34Speaker 1: formed for you. What grown woman enjoys watching little children
- 18:41Speaker 1: have forced sex?
- 18:42Speaker 5: A very thick grown woman.
- 18:45Speaker 1: Once again, I knew that myself, and I am not
- 18:48Speaker 1: an MD.
- 18:48Speaker 5: Nancy, she may have been abused in her past.
- 18:51Speaker 1: Oh dear great, you know what, Just go ahead and
- 18:52Speaker 1: cut her mic because all you're doing is wine wine
- 18:55Speaker 1: wine about how badly this one will I still hear her?
- 18:59Speaker 5: Hello the woman that I'm.
- 19:01Speaker 1: Going to give you a moment to reconsider your opinion,
- 19:04Speaker 1: Doctor Angela Arnold, What more do we know? Take a
- 19:08Speaker 1: listen to our forens at kro N four.
- 19:11Speaker 10: O'Connor has two sons, ages thirteen and fifteen, the same
- 19:15Speaker 10: age range that the victims are in this case. Deputies
- 19:19Speaker 10: in Idaho determined her sons were in imminent danger and
- 19:22Speaker 10: placed them under the custody of the Idaho Department of
- 19:25Speaker 10: Health and Welfare. Law enforcement first began to investigate O'Connor
- 19:29Speaker 10: after a boy was injured when he fell from her
- 19:32Speaker 10: SUV in the Los Gatto's High School parking lot. The
- 19:35Speaker 10: district attorneys said O'Connor went to great lengths to keep
- 19:39Speaker 10: the party's secret from other parents, law enforcement, and her
- 19:42Speaker 10: own husband. She would only invite teens over to the
- 19:45Speaker 10: house for a wild night of drinking when she knew
- 19:47Speaker 10: her husband would not be home. She communicated with students
- 19:51Speaker 10: using Snapchat.
- 19:52Speaker 1: So I didn't realize, is drey Pinner she was married
- 19:56Speaker 1: and the husband knew nothing about what was going on.
- 19:58Speaker 4: Well, that's kind of an open question, and you know,
- 20:01Speaker 4: there's some evidence that shows that she has, you know,
- 20:05Speaker 4: seemed to be hiding the beer cans or whatnot from
- 20:10Speaker 4: her husband prior to him getting home, so he didn't
- 20:13Speaker 4: find out about these parties that were going on. On
- 20:16Speaker 4: the other hand, there does seem to be you know,
- 20:20Speaker 4: a close connection between them. They are co defendants in
- 20:24Speaker 4: a previous action and you know, so that is something
- 20:29Speaker 4: that is still coming out.
- 20:30Speaker 1: It's really hard for me to believe that he had
- 20:32Speaker 1: no idea what was going on. Guys, I want you
- 20:35Speaker 1: to listen to the Samdordulian sex assault lawyer, former LA
- 20:39Speaker 1: County sex crimes prosecutor. Now, this is going down in Walsgatta's,
- 20:43Speaker 1: California and and a very prestigious community. Parties also took
- 20:52Speaker 1: place in Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe, where the cool
- 20:57Speaker 1: mom Shannon oak Connor would ply fourteen to fifteen year
- 21:03Speaker 1: olds with vodka and then hand out condoms, encourages my
- 21:09Speaker 1: encouraging miners to have sex, and laughing when the teens
- 21:14Speaker 1: would engage in sex acts, many of which allegedly weren't
- 21:20Speaker 1: non consensual. Take a listen to our cut four KGO.
- 21:26Speaker 8: Investigators say the party spanned from June twenty twenty to
- 21:29Speaker 8: May twenty twenty one, and often involved O'Connor pushing the
- 21:32Speaker 8: teens to drink until they became sick or blacked out.
- 21:36Speaker 8: The DA's office as some of the assaults against the
- 21:38Speaker 8: young victims happened while they were drunk. Document show teens
- 21:42Speaker 8: also told authorities drinking led to heavy vomiting, a broken finger,
- 21:46Speaker 8: and a girl reporting show almost drowned in a hot tub.
- 21:49Speaker 8: In a release, DA Jeff Rosen said it took a
- 21:51Speaker 8: lot of brave children to come forward and to untangle
- 21:54Speaker 8: this deeply disturbing case. In another case, the DA's office
- 21:58Speaker 8: says O'Connor let a team drive her as v in
- 22:00Speaker 8: the Los Gattus High parking lot while two other teens
- 22:03Speaker 8: held onto the back, one fell off knocked unconscious.
- 22:07Speaker 1: Okay. Also take a listen to Amy Larson Kron, a.
- 22:11Speaker 10: Forty seven year old mom, is accused of throwing sex
- 22:14Speaker 10: parties at her Los Gattos mansion. She pressured underage teenagers
- 22:18Speaker 10: to binge, drink, and encourage boys to have consensual and
- 22:22Speaker 10: non consensual sex with girls. According to the Santa Clara
- 22:26Speaker 10: County District Attorney's Office. Investigators said dozens of Los Gattos
- 22:31Speaker 10: High school students went to Shannon O'Connor's disturbing parties between
- 22:35Speaker 10: June of twenty twenty and May of this year. The
- 22:39Speaker 10: mom recently moved to Adda county in Idaho, where she
- 22:42Speaker 10: continued to invite teens over to her new house. Detectives
- 22:46Speaker 10: told me that when they went to the house to
- 22:48Speaker 10: arrest her last weekend, there were twelve underage teenagers with her,
- 22:53Speaker 10: most of whom had spent the night.
- 22:55Speaker 1: So let me understand this, Drew Pinner. The students would
- 22:58Speaker 1: actually spend the night in the house.
- 23:00Speaker 4: Well, some of these parties would go on for an
- 23:02Speaker 4: awful long time, and you know, I at one point
- 23:06Speaker 4: I tried knocking on the doors of some of the neighbors' homes,
- 23:09Speaker 4: and you know, they didn't really want to say too
- 23:11Speaker 4: much to me about what they had seen or hadn't seen.
- 23:14Speaker 4: I don't know if you know, if people felt it's
- 23:17Speaker 4: guilty for not saying things sooner, or you know, maybe
- 23:20Speaker 4: they did keep certain things under wrap. But you know,
- 23:23Speaker 4: there's definitely a lot of questioning, even by Shannon O'Connor,
- 23:28Speaker 4: who was, you know, googling, as we have reported, you know,
- 23:31Speaker 4: things like what to do with the concussion and a
- 23:34Speaker 4: teenager and you know, kind of concussion cause eye problems,
- 23:38Speaker 4: and you know, investigating, you know people and investigators seem
- 23:41Speaker 4: to think that that may be related to that car
- 23:44Speaker 4: incident exactly you had just heard about there on that
- 23:48Speaker 4: news report.
- 23:48Speaker 1: Guys, it's not the first time a mom has broken
- 23:51Speaker 1: the law in order to be the cool mom at
- 23:56Speaker 1: the school. Take a list to our cut.
- 23:58Speaker 11: Twenty seven years old, Cherylyn McDonald wanted to be known
- 24:02Speaker 11: as the cool mom. She wanted the kids to call her, share,
- 24:05Speaker 11: invited boys to be a part of family outings, and more.
- 24:08Speaker 11: The former cool mom is now behind bars, charged with
- 24:11Speaker 11: engaging in sexual activity with a miner, encouraging sex among miners,
- 24:15Speaker 11: six felony charges of loud and illascivious battery, and three
- 24:19Speaker 11: counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child. The
- 24:22Speaker 11: cool mom party came to an end when a real
- 24:24Speaker 11: mom saw that her teenage son was getting text messages
- 24:27Speaker 11: from McDonald. That real mom questioned her son, found out
- 24:31Speaker 11: about teens playing beer pong and McDonald's, and turned it
- 24:34Speaker 11: all over the police. The investigation is ongoing and McDonald
- 24:37Speaker 11: could face additional charges.
- 24:39Speaker 1: McDonald not alone. Take a listen hour cut twenty our
- 24:42Speaker 1: friends at WSB.
- 24:43Speaker 12: Georgia mother is facing charges after official essays she hosted
- 24:46Speaker 12: a party with drugs and alcohol for a teenage daughter
- 24:49Speaker 12: and her friends. According to an incident report, Rachel Lynn
- 24:53Speaker 12: Linhart's sponsor from Alcoholics Anonymous, came to officials about the incident,
- 24:58Speaker 12: and the woman said Lenhart allowed a group of miners
- 25:01Speaker 12: to drink and smoke marijuana at her home in Evans, Georgia,
- 25:05Speaker 12: near Augusta. The woman claimed linn Hart played naked twister
- 25:10Speaker 12: with the teens and engaged in sexual relations with an
- 25:13Speaker 12: eighteen year old and her daughter's sixteen year old boyfriend.
- 25:18Speaker 12: She's charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency
- 25:20Speaker 12: of a miner and has been released on bond.
- 25:23Speaker 1: Sam Georduley and joining a sex assault lawyer, former LA
- 25:27Speaker 1: County sex crimes prosecutor. Naked twister with a bunch of
- 25:32Speaker 1: teen girls and boys in your home. I mean I
- 25:37Speaker 1: cringed when I heard doctor Angel Arnold talking about Oh,
- 25:42Speaker 1: she's got low self esteem, she's probably been rejected. Don't care.
- 25:48Speaker 1: This is child molestation. I mean Dordolian do you have
- 25:51Speaker 1: any children.
- 25:52Speaker 7: I have two children, in fact, wondering about the same
- 25:55Speaker 7: age as these kids at.
- 25:56Speaker 1: Thirteen going to the mom's house down the street, and
- 26:03Speaker 1: then to find out later she was egged into sex
- 26:06Speaker 1: acts and given drugs and alcohol by the so called
- 26:09Speaker 1: cool mom. I would do a backflip.
- 26:11Speaker 7: Yeah, I can't even imagine it. And look, Nancy. In
- 26:14Speaker 7: twenty five plus years I've been doing sex crimes, I
- 26:17Speaker 7: haven't heard a story like this. And again, we I
- 26:20Speaker 7: think a lot has to do The reason why this
- 26:22Speaker 7: continued and it was allowed to fester and she was
- 26:24Speaker 7: allowed to do all these things is because of her
- 26:27Speaker 7: status as a mom, as a woman. I've prosecuted a
- 26:30Speaker 7: lot of these cases. I've tried in civil court, a
- 26:33Speaker 7: lot of these cases. You don't see a lot of
- 26:35Speaker 7: sexual predators who are women. I do have them, I've
- 26:38Speaker 7: had them before, nothing like this. And we have an
- 26:41Speaker 7: inherent trust of mothers, don't we. You know, you believe
- 26:44Speaker 7: you want to believe, especially since she's a mom of
- 26:46Speaker 7: someone a child of your child's age, She's not going
- 26:50Speaker 7: to hurt them. She's going to protect them. That's what
- 26:52Speaker 7: we all want to believe. And I think that belief
- 26:55Speaker 7: allowed this to continue and the reason why, you know,
- 26:59Speaker 7: parents are going to the school instead of the police.
- 27:01Speaker 7: We have a different impression of female sexual offenders, but
- 27:04Speaker 7: they're just as dangerous as we see in this particular kick.
- 27:07Speaker 1: Well. You know an interesting point, samd Or Julian f
- 27:11Speaker 1: a dad was throwing a party. I don't know how
- 27:16Speaker 1: many teen girls parents would even let them go.
- 27:18Speaker 7: I wouldn't. I certainly wouldn't let my daughter go. I
- 27:22Speaker 7: have a distrust of male O.
- 27:24Speaker 1: Ha, double Lno. I say you're not going to a
- 27:28Speaker 1: party at some pervy dad's house. That's not happening. Ooh okay, cringe.
- 27:33Speaker 1: You know I want to go back to doctor Angeley Arnold.
- 27:36Speaker 1: I guess we can turn our mic back on. You know,
- 27:40Speaker 1: you've given me just enough information over the years to
- 27:43Speaker 1: throw something back at you. You're talking about how she
- 27:47Speaker 1: has low self esteem and low self worth and was
- 27:51Speaker 1: probably rejected in her life. I assume the next thing
- 27:55Speaker 1: you're gonna say is this is a desperate cry for help.
- 27:57Speaker 1: How about a manipulative narcissist with no conscience? Would that
- 28:03Speaker 1: she's it?
- 28:04Speaker 5: Yes? It would, Yes, it would, Nancy. And I'll tell
- 28:07Speaker 5: you something else. The reason nobody's calling and reporting her
- 28:11Speaker 5: is because the research has shown that if you report
- 28:16Speaker 5: that you have done abused by a female more times
- 28:21Speaker 5: than not, you are not believed.
- 28:24Speaker 1: I didn't think of that. You're absolutely correct. And guess
- 28:27Speaker 1: what else gave her the en disha of responsibility and
- 28:34Speaker 1: her mom's status secured. She's living at a four point
- 28:38Speaker 1: seven million dollar mansion. I bet they've got a pool.
- 28:43Speaker 1: I know they've got a hot tob because one girl
- 28:45Speaker 1: almost drowned in their hot tob drunk.
- 28:47Speaker 13: Sure, four point.
- 28:48Speaker 1: Seven million dollars home up there in Los Gato's a
- 28:52Speaker 1: quote tech savvy predator who taught the teens to lie
- 28:58Speaker 1: using gifts in order to bait the girls. WHOA wait,
- 29:03Speaker 1: we haven't even touched on that, Drew Panter. Drew Panter,
- 29:06Speaker 1: investigative reporter at the Loos gotten what kind of gifts
- 29:09Speaker 1: did she use to bait the teen girls?
- 29:13Speaker 4: Well, I mean, if you know the Bay area at all,
- 29:17Speaker 4: you know that you know just over the hill, you
- 29:19Speaker 4: know you've got Santa Cruz and that's a pretty pretty
- 29:22Speaker 4: awesome destination to go to, and people like going on
- 29:25Speaker 4: trips there. Same with Tahoe. So if you get invited
- 29:28Speaker 4: along to trip to one of those places. I mean,
- 29:30Speaker 4: who wouldn't want to go. Keep in mind, these are
- 29:32Speaker 4: kids that don't have access to just head on on
- 29:35Speaker 4: a weekend trip on their own, you know, And you know,
- 29:38Speaker 4: so that's that's one thing, you know, getting these the
- 29:41Speaker 4: alcohol supplied. I mean, that's not exactly easy when you're
- 29:44Speaker 4: near a kid, and you know. I just I think
- 29:47Speaker 4: that there's a lot of this affection that's been showered
- 29:50Speaker 4: on them as well by miss O'Connor, as we hear
- 29:54Speaker 4: and from some of the stories that we've been reporting on,
- 29:58Speaker 4: including you know that that may have been a technique,
- 30:01Speaker 4: this flattery in order to build trust in bonds Panner.
- 30:07Speaker 4: One other thing I wanted to say, I wanted to
- 30:09Speaker 4: say too, was was just that if you don't mind,
- 30:13Speaker 4: was just that it's I think that we have to
- 30:15Speaker 4: keep in mind that this is this is someone that uh,
- 30:19Speaker 4: you know, she had on her phone. It turns out,
- 30:22Speaker 4: as we've now reported, like a video of a girl
- 30:26Speaker 4: saying that, you know, talking about her own body image.
- 30:29Speaker 4: And we don't know if this is someone she knew
- 30:31Speaker 4: or is something she downlonged from TikTok, But this is
- 30:34Speaker 4: pointing to the fact that you know she had not
- 30:37Speaker 4: just a desire to help her own child, perhaps hook up,
- 30:42Speaker 4: but you know there's some question around was she maybe
- 30:47Speaker 4: looking for having a let's say, a bad interest in
- 30:50Speaker 4: sixteen year olds. For example, one of her the searches
- 30:52Speaker 4: on her phone was hot sixteen year old teenage girls
- 30:57Speaker 4: and prettiest sixteen year old girl.
- 31:00Speaker 1: So called cool mom not so cool now looking at
- 31:03Speaker 1: decades behind bars after a booze fueled party, actually a
- 31:09Speaker 1: series of parties for children. What happened in O'Connor's mansion.
- 31:15Speaker 1: We know that one young girl, who is going only
- 31:18Speaker 1: by the name Jane Doe eight, says that cool Mom
- 31:21Speaker 1: O'Connor quote tore my life apart. I've suffered and had
- 31:25Speaker 1: to deal with the reputation of being quote the girl
- 31:28Speaker 1: that got raped. I will live my high school years
- 31:31Speaker 1: with this cloud over me. Victims say that O'Connor befriended
- 31:35Speaker 1: them through her children and social media when they were
- 31:39Speaker 1: just freshmen at Los Gato's High This Jane do eight says,
- 31:44Speaker 1: Shannon does not have a conscience. She's a con artist.
- 31:47Speaker 1: I will never have the life I once had, and
- 31:50Speaker 1: neither should she. She says that O'Connor would have boys
- 31:55Speaker 1: get drunk and then drunkenly sex assault the girl while
- 32:01Speaker 1: O'Connor watched. One of these girls, Jane Doe nine, actually
- 32:07Speaker 1: had to take out a protection order against O'Connor after
- 32:11Speaker 1: she realized O'Connor had been following her around with no
- 32:15Speaker 1: headlights on. The girl still has nightmares today. One girl
- 32:21Speaker 1: says that O'Connor moved into her town and the little
- 32:25Speaker 1: girl got twenty seven calls with no caller ID, but
- 32:28Speaker 1: with Shannon O'Connor on the other end breathing into the phone.
- 32:33Speaker 1: Does anybody have a concern about what took so long
- 32:37Speaker 1: to bring this woman to justice? Here's another theory in
- 32:41Speaker 1: addition to jury pitters theory that she was sexually interested
- 32:46Speaker 1: in young teen girls and boys. Did she actually want
- 32:50Speaker 1: to be a child again? Take a listen to our
- 32:54Speaker 1: cut twenty eight WNYT camerom.
- 32:58Speaker 14: Durham School District Superintendent Anthony Taibi says thirty two year
- 33:02Speaker 14: old Michael Ann Goodrich came in to register for classes
- 33:05Speaker 14: on December nineteenth. He says administrators immediately felt something was off,
- 33:09Speaker 14: but Taybe says, under the McKinney Vento Act, the district
- 33:13Speaker 14: had to admit Goodrich immediately because she claimed to be homeless.
- 33:16Speaker 7: She did attend school for one day, and she did,
- 33:21Speaker 7: in fact right the school was to and from school
- 33:23Speaker 7: that day.
- 33:24Speaker 9: He says.
- 33:25Speaker 14: Goodrich was absent on the twenty first, and then the
- 33:27Speaker 14: holiday break began the following week. She was arrested on
- 33:30Speaker 14: the twenty eighth and charged with offering a false for failing,
- 33:34Speaker 14: falsifying business records, and criminal trespassing and more.
- 33:37Speaker 1: In our cut twenty five from APY, a.
- 33:40Speaker 13: Thirty year old sex offender who posed as a child
- 33:43Speaker 13: has pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges and will now
- 33:46Speaker 13: serve at least seventy years in prison. Neil Havens Roderick
- 33:50Speaker 13: the Second faced twenty eight counts, but pleaded guilty to
- 33:53Speaker 13: only a quarter of them, according to a plea agreement document.
- 33:56Speaker 13: Two of those charges stem from when he posed as
- 33:59Speaker 13: a twelve year old boy and enrolled in this Arizona
- 34:02Speaker 13: charter school in January two thousand and seven.
- 34:04Speaker 15: If it's a facade he's been putting on, he's very
- 34:07Speaker 15: good at it because he obviously fooled educators. He fooled
- 34:11Speaker 15: trained and experienced investigators. So if it's a facade. Then
- 34:15Speaker 15: he's an absolute magician.
- 34:17Speaker 1: So this spans I understand, dreaprinter from Los Gato's to Idaho.
- 34:22Speaker 1: Is that correct?
- 34:23Speaker 4: So it is true that what happened is that as
- 34:27Speaker 4: the investigation was progressing into the conduct of Shannon O'Connor,
- 34:33Speaker 4: she leaves, she goes to Idaho. And you know, you
- 34:37Speaker 4: might say, Okay, maybe that's a nice coincidence or whatever
- 34:40Speaker 4: for her, but you know, the truth is is that
- 34:44Speaker 4: we're starting to see that she's very aware of the
- 34:47Speaker 4: fact that you know that it's there's different rules when
- 34:51Speaker 4: you have authority, local authorities investigating year, it's harder for
- 34:54Speaker 4: them to reach across state lines. And in fact, at
- 34:59Speaker 4: one point she's she's Internet searching io Idaho Statute of
- 35:04Speaker 4: Limitations Criminal She's going, hey, can I get prosecuted in
- 35:08Speaker 4: California if I live in Idaho.
- 35:10Speaker 1: She's very savvy, Dre what about it, Sam Doordoulian, She's
- 35:15Speaker 1: looking for statue limitations? How long can they prosecute me
- 35:18Speaker 1: in another jurisdiction for this?
- 35:20Speaker 7: She's incredibly manipulative and it's just terrifying. The other parts
- 35:23Speaker 7: that you mentioned about the whole stalking part of it,
- 35:26Speaker 7: I worked the stocking unit as well, and I can
- 35:28Speaker 7: tell you and working with the DA's office prosecute all
- 35:31Speaker 7: sorts of criminals, there's only two that I was really
- 35:33Speaker 7: truly frightened up. Hardcore game members and stalkers. And she
- 35:37Speaker 7: seems to not only just be a sexual predator, but
- 35:40Speaker 7: it has to go stalking elements on top. And it's
- 35:42Speaker 7: just terrifying that she would move to a different state
- 35:45Speaker 7: be so manipulative. And there's some reference to her moving
- 35:49Speaker 7: to another state where there's one of the victims actually lived.
- 35:53Speaker 7: Terrifying what this woman was doing. And to suggest that
- 35:55Speaker 7: the husband had no idea about all of this, I
- 35:58Speaker 7: think it's just foolish. Absolutely well, we.
- 36:01Speaker 1: Do know that he has recently filed for divorce. And
- 36:04Speaker 1: do you blame him? What about it? Doctor Angie Arnold,
- 36:07Speaker 1: psychiatrist out of Atlanta. I gave you two examples of many,
- 36:11Speaker 1: many where adults have actually enrolled in middle school and
- 36:15Speaker 1: high school posing as teens to be aroundings. It's like
- 36:18Speaker 1: they want to be a teen. Is that some sort
- 36:21Speaker 1: of a designated ailment?
- 36:23Speaker 5: You know, Nancy, I don't that ailment doesn't necessarily have
- 36:26Speaker 5: a name. It all goes under the it's all under
- 36:29Speaker 5: the guise of sexual predators, and it's just another way
- 36:32Speaker 5: that they manipulate the system. I mean, Nancy, I have
- 36:35Speaker 5: to wonder. I mean, there's so many things that are
- 36:37Speaker 5: going on in our world right now that are predatory
- 36:41Speaker 5: to children that we have to keep an eye out
- 36:44Speaker 5: for all of those things.
- 36:45Speaker 1: You know. I want to follow up with Anna Sonoda,
- 36:48Speaker 1: child groomy expert and author of Duck Duck Groom. We're
- 36:52Speaker 1: talking about various motives. Did this so called cool mom
- 36:57Speaker 1: o'cnnor actually want to be a teen again? Take a
- 37:00Speaker 1: listen to this and Sonoda our cut nine from kg AS.
- 37:04Speaker 16: The DA's office believe an early motive for O'Connor's alleged
- 37:07Speaker 16: actions is sexual gratification. Core documents say she would use
- 37:11Speaker 16: social media to lure minors to her home, give them alcohol, condoms,
- 37:14Speaker 16: and private rooms to commit sexual acts that sometimes we're
- 37:18Speaker 16: not consensual.
- 37:19Speaker 2: One of the crimes that we have charged involves committing
- 37:23Speaker 2: the crime for sexual gratification, So we can certainly say
- 37:26Speaker 2: that sexual gratification is one of the motives in this case.
- 37:30Speaker 1: What about it, Anna Sinotta.
- 37:31Speaker 9: Well, Nancy, I think we have to back up a
- 37:33Speaker 9: second and say that all sex, all sexual acts with
- 37:38Speaker 9: anyone under the age of eighteen in California aslong with Idaho,
- 37:43Speaker 9: is always non consensual. These children don't even have the
- 37:47Speaker 9: ability to consent to sex. So let's get that on
- 37:50Speaker 9: the table. First of all, I think one of the
- 37:53Speaker 9: things we have to keep in mind, sixty six percent
- 37:56Speaker 9: of child sex abuse victims are between the ages of
- 37:59Speaker 9: twelve and seven. This is a ripe atmosphere. This woman
- 38:04Speaker 9: took her position. It's easy to impress teens. She was likable,
- 38:10Speaker 9: she was powerful, and she was popular. She was providing money, alcohol,
- 38:17Speaker 9: Everything was free to these kids. We don't know the
- 38:19Speaker 9: socioeconomics of the children who are in that position, and
- 38:22Speaker 9: we know that there were no other authority figures. She
- 38:25Speaker 9: always set it up so that she was the sole adult,
- 38:29Speaker 9: and she convinced other adults to trust her to supervise,
- 38:33Speaker 9: protect and prevent any damage, and she did nothing of
- 38:36Speaker 9: the sort. Instead, she was pretending that she was forever
- 38:39Speaker 9: twenty one, if you will, and disregarding any sort of
- 38:43Speaker 9: obligation as an adult or as an authority figure.
- 38:46Speaker 1: So would you say, Anna Sonoda that she has some
- 38:52Speaker 1: sort of an age regression mental ailment or as the
- 39:00Speaker 1: motive here, or do you believe it's for her pure
- 39:04Speaker 1: sex gratification or so somehow she can be the quote
- 39:08Speaker 1: cool mom.
- 39:08Speaker 9: I actually don't think it matters. Why.
- 39:11Speaker 1: No, it doesn't matter.
- 39:12Speaker 9: Why we're so fixated on why somebody would do something.
- 39:17Speaker 9: The message that listeners need to get out of this
- 39:20Speaker 9: example is that people who are entrusted with your child,
- 39:25Speaker 9: as long as you send them into environments in which
- 39:28Speaker 9: they have space and access away from proper supervision, the
- 39:33Speaker 9: highest risk environment your child can ever be in is
- 39:36Speaker 9: your home or someone else's home. So if these parents
- 39:40Speaker 9: had just eliminated the house parties, this wasn't happening at school,
- 39:45Speaker 9: This wasn't happening at church, This wasn't happening in the
- 39:48Speaker 9: local playground. This is happening at her home. Let's all
- 39:52Speaker 9: wake up to the reality that our homes, and when
- 39:55Speaker 9: we allow our children to go to other people's homes,
- 39:58Speaker 9: that is the highest risk environment. So honestly, I don't
- 40:02Speaker 9: care what reason she had for acting like a teen
- 40:05Speaker 9: other than grooming and looking cool and having access and
- 40:10Speaker 9: then suddenly being the one almost like a big sister
- 40:13Speaker 9: with a proper id. Here are these kids who are
- 40:17Speaker 9: trying to test the boundaries because that is the appropriate
- 40:20Speaker 9: developmental stage that they are going through in their own adolescents.
- 40:23Speaker 1: Jane Doe too did not want to testify, claiming she
- 40:28Speaker 1: wants to quote forget this ever happened, But her mother
- 40:31Speaker 1: spoke out, saying she's not here because she doesn't want
- 40:34Speaker 1: Shannon O'Connor to own one more minute of her life.
- 40:37Speaker 1: My daughter is not here because she's busy doing what
- 40:40Speaker 1: kids their junior years should be doing, studying for AP tests, SATs,
- 40:45Speaker 1: prom dress fitting, dreaming about colleges. Her life will never
- 40:49Speaker 1: be the same crime stories with Nancy Grace. In court,
- 41:04Speaker 1: Shannon O'Connor tried to look like a conservative librarian and
- 41:08Speaker 1: a black jacket with a ponytail done up in the
- 41:10Speaker 1: back of her head. At times, she would look demurely
- 41:14Speaker 1: at the judge and then back down to her lap
- 41:19Speaker 1: in front of her. It didn't work. The jury saw
- 41:23Speaker 1: through the act and convicted her and had nothing to
- 41:26Speaker 1: do with her demeanor and had everything to do with
- 41:29Speaker 1: the facts. What do we know?
- 41:31Speaker 2: Defendant Shannon O'Connor was convicted of more than sixty crimes
- 41:37Speaker 2: against more than a dozen child victims from Los gaddos
- 41:44Speaker 2: every child who testified. The jury convicted the defendant of
- 41:50Speaker 2: a charge involving that child.
- 41:52Speaker 1: Michael bought for an NYPD sergeant. Have you ever seen
- 41:55Speaker 1: anything like it to this extent?
- 41:58Speaker 6: No, it's crazy. And she knew exactly what she was
- 42:01Speaker 6: doing was illegal, you know, by keeping it from the
- 42:05Speaker 6: parents and conspiring with the kids to make sure I
- 42:07Speaker 6: kept it from the parents. So she knew exactly what
- 42:09Speaker 6: she was doing. And I do agree with your other
- 42:14Speaker 6: caller that none of the acts are consensual due to age,
- 42:18Speaker 6: and she's basically an accessory to a sexual assault. She's
- 42:22Speaker 6: a facilitator, and she encouraged the behavior. She's just as
- 42:26Speaker 6: bad as the person committing the sexual assault. And she
- 42:28Speaker 6: must be getting gratification out.
- 42:29Speaker 1: Of it, so much from being a cool mom not
- 42:32Speaker 1: so cool behind bars? Drew Panter, what is a status
- 42:36Speaker 1: O'Connor's case?
- 42:38Speaker 4: Oh? Man, So this is one of those cases that
- 42:41Speaker 4: just keeps going on and on. There's been many steps
- 42:44Speaker 4: and we're not even really even into the preliminary inquiry yet.
- 42:50Speaker 4: It was about to start the preliminary inquiry and then
- 42:53Speaker 4: there was a legal maneuver that I personally wasn't familiar
- 42:56Speaker 4: with until now, which is basically going to the judge
- 42:59Speaker 4: and saying, hey, if I plead to all the charges,
- 43:03Speaker 4: what would you give me? So that's basically the step
- 43:06Speaker 4: that we are in now, where I just spoke with
- 43:10Speaker 4: a parent yesterday and one of the parents told me that,
- 43:13Speaker 4: you know, Shannon O'Connor has now been offered a seventeen
- 43:18Speaker 4: year and four month sentence. Of course, this has not
- 43:20Speaker 4: been put on the record yet, so there is a
- 43:22Speaker 4: chance that could change before you know, before I hear next. However,
- 43:27Speaker 4: that's what if she decides to plead to everything. We're
- 43:31Speaker 4: told that she could go away for seventeen years. It
- 43:34Speaker 4: could have been as much as twenty, but who knows.
- 43:37Speaker 4: Maybe this is just a legal maneuver to draw things
- 43:40Speaker 4: out and basically start the process all over again of
- 43:44Speaker 4: the preliminary inquiry, and then if that goes forward, of course,
- 43:49Speaker 4: there could be a trial later on. And this is
- 43:53Speaker 4: all going after an earlier process to try to get
- 43:57Speaker 4: out on bail. She's currently in pre trial custody as
- 44:00Speaker 4: you heard there at the Elmwood facility there in Santa
- 44:04Speaker 4: Clara County, and basically her lawyer took that all the
- 44:09Speaker 4: way to the California Supreme Court. So a lot of
- 44:13Speaker 4: these kids, as you'd heard earlier, they're saying, you know,
- 44:16Speaker 4: I want my life back, and in fact they're saying, geez,
- 44:20Speaker 4: I want to at least be able to get through college,
- 44:23Speaker 4: you know, and be free from you know, any tormenting
- 44:27Speaker 4: from her. Of course, this is all now Shannon O'Connor,
- 44:30Speaker 4: we have to say, has not had a full chance
- 44:32Speaker 4: to amount the defense. Of course she could have, but
- 44:35Speaker 4: this is this has not gone to trial. However, from
- 44:38Speaker 4: a lot of the evidence that has come out so far,
- 44:41Speaker 4: there are justices in California and judges in the California
- 44:44Speaker 4: system that have pointed to the strong evidence as they
- 44:47Speaker 4: see it about some of the stuff that has happened.
- 44:50Speaker 4: So's be careful. But at the same time we have
- 44:52Speaker 4: to say, hey, this is one of those cases where
- 44:56Speaker 4: there is it seems to be at least some pretty
- 44:58Speaker 4: strong evidence of a lot of this behavior occurring. I
- 45:01Speaker 4: want to say one more thing really quickly, and that
- 45:03Speaker 4: is clarifying one of the comments that was meant that
- 45:07Speaker 4: was made earlier, and I believe one of the victims
- 45:09Speaker 4: had said, you know, I'm known as the girl who
- 45:12Speaker 4: was raped. I believe that's the same person that followed
- 45:15Speaker 4: that statement up by saying, hey, that's not even my allegation.
- 45:20Speaker 4: Now that's not to say that she believes that didn't
- 45:22Speaker 4: happen to other girls or possibly boys, We don't know.
- 45:26Speaker 4: But what the point is is that we also have
- 45:28Speaker 4: a responsibility as a community in a society to be
- 45:31Speaker 4: careful with how we look at how these situations play out,
- 45:35Speaker 4: because you know, we don't want a victim. See they
- 45:38Speaker 4: need to be seen as victims for what happened to them,
- 45:40Speaker 4: and they shouldn't be tarnished with any kind of negative reputation.
- 45:45Speaker 1: All the crimes occurred at the property O'Connor owned with
- 45:49Speaker 1: her tech executive husband, Robert amerll there in Los Gato's,
- 45:55Speaker 1: a very very exclusive area in northern California, but also
- 46:00Speaker 1: town rentals in Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe. What is
- 46:04Speaker 1: wrong with this woman? Victims describe being lured to the
- 46:08Speaker 1: parties over social media and by text to quote hang
- 46:12Speaker 1: out at get togethers, some enticed with the promise of
- 46:16Speaker 1: flying on a private jet. What was she thinking? There
- 46:21Speaker 1: is no doubt in my mind that O'Connor is furiously
- 46:24Speaker 1: planning her appeal as we go to air, we wait
- 46:29Speaker 1: as justice unfals Nancy Grace crime story, signing off IF
- 46:34Speaker 1: my Friend