Pasadena Murder Suspect Due Back in Court Tuesday

Further legal proceedings regarding the mental competency of Mary Jean O’Connor, a woman accused of murdering a woman who adopted one of O’Connor’s two young children, are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Pasadena Superior Court.

O’Connor is charged with one count of murder in relation to the strangulation of 75-year-old Jeri Douglas. O’Connor’s toddler son was placed in Douglas’ care after O’Connor was deemed an unfit mother. Douglas’ daughter, Tanya Juhasz, later adopted the boy.

O’Connor later had a daughter that also became Douglas’ ward, according to a City News Service report. 

According to authorities, O’Connor obtained confidential information about Douglas from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and then called her and claimed she needed her to sign some papers. 

Once inside her Pasadena home, O’Connor allegedly choked Douglas to death. Police arrested O’Connor in a mobile home in North Hollywood in 2018.

O’Connor declared her innocence in a phone interview with the Pasadena Weekly soon after she was arrested.

“No, I didn’t do it, but I am not going to discuss it on a recorded phone line,” O’Connor said from jail, where she is currently being held on $2 million bail.

O’Connor has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she faces 25 years to life in prison.

Juhasz and her sister Lorie Hope have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county. 

In their lawsuit, the two women claim O’Connor, 43, was able to locate and murder their mother due to negligence on the part of employees with the DCFS, who allegedly provided O’Connor with confidential information about Douglas.

“Beyond Douglas’ premature, tragic and unnecessary death, DCFS’s apparent failure to protect its foster parents is a violation of the public trust and unreasonably puts some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable children and most selfless citizens at risk,” the lawsuit states.

L.A. County’s DCFS is the largest child protective services agency in the nation, responsible for ensuring the safety of 2 million children, according to its website.