SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) -- A jury trial for Shannon O’Connor, the Los Gatos "Party Mom," is underway in the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice this month. More than four years after O'Connor was jailed and accused of throwing alcohol-fueled parties for underage Los Gatos High School students, or chestrating sexual assaults between minors while she watched, and harassing teens over Snapchat, her trial began on December 1 with opening statements. The mother of two allegedly threw "dangerous" parties in her $4-million Los Gatos mansion between 2020-2021 that she kept secret from police, her husband, and other parents, investigators said. "When defendant threw parties for children, she did everything she could to hide these parties from adults and authorities. She told (the teens) if anyone found out, she could go to jail,"  Deputy District Attorney Joanna Lee wrote. Shannon O'Connor listens in court. (Pool photo / Anda Chu / Bay Area News Group) A grand jury indicted the "Party Mom" on 63 felony and misdemeanor charges. The trial paused on Monday because a juror called in sick. Testimony is scheduled to resume on Tuesday with Judge Elizabeth Peterson presiding. Prosecutors plan on calling more than 40 people to testify on the stand, including 18 alleged victims, according to their witness list. O'Connor's alleged victims are identified as 12 girls, "Jane Does," and eight boys, "John Does." In opening statements, a defense attorney attacked "John Doe 1's" character and credibility. "The defense ... repeatedly called John Doe 1 a rapist in opening statements," prosecutors wrote. "There is evidence that the defendant was pressuring John Doe 1 to engage in sexual activity (with) multiple minor girls." Shannon O'Connor walks into a courtroom on Nov. 6, 2023. (Pool image) One potential witness whom O'Connor does not want prosecutors to call on is her own teenaged son, identified in court documents as "John Doe 3." During jail phone call recorded on July 23, 2025, the teenager tells his mother that he's going to cooperate with the District Attorney's Office and reassures her, "Mom, they're not out to to get me." O'Connor tells her son, "You could ruin my whole case. You do know that, right? Don't do anything. Don't go through the DA, that's crazy!"  According to Deputy District Attorney Joanna Lee, the jail calls expose O'Connor "dissuading John Doe 3 from cooperating with the District Attorney's Office ... because it will drastically change defendant's future and it will ruin her whole case." "John Doe 3" is not included on the trial's witness list filed by prosecutors. Another jail call between the mother and son, recorded on June 17, 2025, involves a conversation about "John Doe 3's" current sexual activities. The son told his mother that he "hooked up" with a "blonde, hot" cheerleader. Lee filed a motion seeking to play the jail calls for the jury. Los Gatos Party Mom ‘tore my life apart,’ victim says O'Connor's alleged crimes began in the summer of 2020, court documents state, shortly after "John Doe 3" graduated from middle school. Prosecutors said Shannon O'Connor threw teen sex parties inside this Los Gatos mansion. (KRON4 photo) "Many of his friends recall that during the summer before their freshman year, defendant began giving them alcohol when they were at her home. This was the beginning of what would become her trademark activity for the next nine months," Lee wrote. At all of the parties, O'Connor furnished boys and girls with so much alcohol that some would vomit or fall unconscious. The parties turned into an "enormously traumatic period of their lives" for the Los Gatos High School student who attended, Lee wrote. Investigators said the 50-year-old mother's primary motive was driven by "an unnatural or abnormal sexual interest" in children, and she encouraged sex assaults between teens for her own "sexual gratification." In addition child molestation and furnishing alcohol to minors, the mother is also charged with over a dozen counts of endangering or injuring the health of a child. Los Gatos High School is located in an affluent, wealthy neighborhood. (Photo by KRON4 / Amy Larson) Her phone contained thousands of videos and photographs of young girls wearing revealing clothing that she downloaded from the social media, court documents state. Each of the 63 charges filed against O'Connor stems from specific incidents, including one on Dec. 19, 2020 when a bystander saw "John Doe 2" unconscious and called police. "As police are approaching, defendant tells John Doe 1, 'Don't talk to the police. Don't tell the police what happened. You let me do the talking,'" Lee wrote. At a party on New Year's Eve in 2020, the mother alleged watched a boy sexually assault "Jane Doe 3" in her jacuzzi while the victim was so intoxicated "she could barely hold her head above water," court documents state. O'Connor has pleaded not guilty to all charges. She is being held in jail without bail. Her ex-husband previously said O’Connor is a "menace to society" who "has the financial means and arrogance to break the law again." Her husband, Robert Amaral, reportedly filed for divorce after her 2021 arrest. ...read more read less