Maureen O'Connor

Maureen Frances O'Connor (born July 14, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 31st and first female mayor of San Diego from 1986 to 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the youngest person ever to be elected to the San Diego City Council and the first woman to serve as mayor of San Diego.

In 2013, federal prosecutors charged her with money laundering, but deferred prosecution based on her agreement to pay back the funds involved. The charges were formally dismissed on February 24, 2015.

Early life In 1971, O'Connor became the youngest person elected to the San Diego City Council. Maureen O'Connor was born in 1946 in San Diego, California. She was one of 13 children, including a twin named Mavourneen who later became her campaign manager.

In 1961, one of her brothers was stabbed by an employee at the Campus Drive-in movie theater in Rolando who was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The family unsuccessfully sued the Campus company and her father became locally famous as the president of the San Diego Court Watchers Association.

O'Connor graduated from San Diego State University in 1970 with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. After graduation, O'Connor was a physical education teacher and counselor for Rosary High School . She became inspired to enter politics after seeing Indians being treated poorly at a bicentennial celebration for the city and a City Hall taxicab scandal. O'Connor was commissioner for the Port of San Diego from 1980–1985.

In 1983, she ran for mayor against Roger Hedgecock, but lost the race amid criticism that she and her millionaire husband attempted to buy the election after spending $560,000 of their own money.

In 2000, during the 2000–2001 California electricity crisis, she joined consumer activists like Ralph Nader in decrying the notoriously destructive effects of utility deregulation on California.

In 1987, she was the first mayor of San Diego to march in the San Diego Pride Parade, alongside the mother of an AIDS patient. She was fulfilling a campaign promise to the LGBT community. She was cheered and booed. She said she was not condoning or condemning anyone, just showing support.

Personal life O'Connor met her future husband Robert O. Peterson,

2013 money laundering charges In February 2013, O'Connor was charged in federal court with money laundering. Under an agreement with prosecutors, prosecution was deferred, contingent on her repaying $2 million which she allegedly took from a nonprofit foundation she managed, the R. P. Foundation, created by her late husband Robert O. Peterson. The fund is reported to be virtually defunct, its sole assets being $2 million owed to it by unspecified foundation insiders. Prosecutors said her gambling activity exceeded $1 billion over the period 2000–2008, with net losses of around $13 million, leaving her "destitute".

O'Connor attributed her behavior to a gambling addiction aggravated by a brain tumor, for which she had surgery in 2011.