California Woman Charged for Allegedly Pushing Excessive Drinking, Sex at Secret Teen Parties
© AFP 2023 / CHRIS DELMAS
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Shannon Bruga, a 47-year-old woman from South Bay, California, has been charged with hosting a string of illegal parties for her son and his friends where she provided alcohol, encouraged binge drinking and facilitated sexual assaults.
Bruga faces 39 criminal charges, 12 felony counts, 10 misdemeanor counts of child endangerment, a single count of misdemeanor sexual battery, three counts of misdemeanor child molestation, and 13 misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to minors.
The parties spanned from June 2020 to May 2021, and were primarily attended by teens between the age of 14 and 15 where she was the lone adult. According to prosecutors, Bruga obsessively organized the parties through text messages and popular social media platform Snapchat.
She allegedly helped teens sneak out of their homes, and was adamant that the teens keep the parties secret.
Shannon O’Connor, aka Shannon Bruga, 47, then from Los Gatos, charged w/throwing drunken parties for teens, buying them vodka & Fireball whiskey, providing condoms & encouraging sex acts - sometimes non-consensual - that she watched at times, per @SantaClaraDA pic.twitter.com/fiu6F2Rldd
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) October 12, 2021
At the parties, Bruga would allegedly encourage binge drinking until the point of illness and unconsciousness. Teens routinely would drink until vomiting and risking drowning from passing out in a hot tub. Physical altercations were also reported to have occurred.
Bruga supplying alcohol to minors was far from her worst offense, however. According to reports, she pressured teens into sexual encounters and potentially facilitated sexual assaults. One teen claimed that she would watch the teens engage in sexual activities.
In one instance, Bruga is accused of escorting a boy into a bedroom where a girl laid on a bed partially conscious. After she left the room, the boy is alleged to have digitally penetrated the girl.
The unidentified teen is said to have later confronted Bruga about the altercation, saying, "Why did you leave me in there with him?... you knew like what he was going to do me.” Bruga allegedly “just laughed at” the teenager's accusations.
It is unknown if any of the teens have been charged with sexual assault as minors’ names cannot be publicly revealed. Bruga was apprehended in Ada County, Idaho, where authorities believe she was holding similar parties. When Ada County Sheriff’s office went to arrest Bruga, there were 10 underaged boys and two girls at her home.
She is currently being held in Ada County Jail on a $900,000 bond.
