Kerrigan's brother gets 2.5 years for dad assault

Nancy Kerrigan (AP Photo)

  WOBURN, Mass. -- A Massachusetts judge sentenced the brother of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan to the maximum two and a half years in jail on Thursday after he was convicted of assault in the death of their 70-year-old father.

Six months of the sentence for Mark Kerrigan will be suspended, and he will be required to get anger management and alcohol treatment, and serve two years of probation.

Nancy Kerrigan broke down and cried earlier as she asked Judge S. Jane Haggerty to send Mark Kerrigan home instead of sending him to jail.

Mark Kerrigan was convicted of assault, but acquitted of manslaughter, Wednesday in his father's 2010 death.

Prosecutors alleged that Mark Kerrigan caused his father's death during a physical altercation at the family's home in Stoneham, just north of Boston. They said Mark Kerrigan put his hands around Daniel Kerrigan's neck with such force that he broke cartilage in his father's larynx and triggered his heart failure.

The defense argued that Daniel Kerrigan died because he had severely blocked coronary arteries and that Mark Kerrigan was not responsible.

Nancy Kerrigan told the judge that the large Kerrigan family supported her brother. She called his prosecution in the death of their father "a long and trying experience."

"Any sentence for Mark would only serve to extend an unnecessary situation that already seems as if it has been never-ending," she said.

"We ask that you please ... send him home with us today so that he can rejoin our family," she said, breaking down in tears.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley asked the judge to sentence Kerrigan to the maximum 2 ? years, citing his lengthy criminal record and alcohol problem.

Defense attorney Janice Bassil asked for a 6-month suspended sentence followed by a year of probation.

The judge called a recess before pronouncing the sentence, after listening to the emotional statements from Nancy Kerrigan and her aunt, Joanne Tarason, who spoke on behalf of Nancy and Mark's mother, Brenda Kerrigan.

Brenda Kerrigan's statement said, "Mark and I have suffered enough." She said Mark has helped her "in every way possible" since his father's death. Brenda Kerrigan is legally blind.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Jury acquits Kerrigan brother in father's death

This is a June 24, 2009 file photo of Nancy Kerrigan, a silver medalist in figure skating at the 1994 Olympics, speaking with reporters in Boston. The father of Nancy Kerrigan was found dead Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010 in his home, and authorities have charged the brother of the Olympic figure skater with assaulting their father. Mark Kerrigan, 35, faces arraignment Monday, Jan. 25, 2010 in Woburn, Mass. District Court on a charge of assault and battery on a person over 60 that resulted in injuries, said John Teevan, first assistant clerk magistrate of the court. Teevan identified the victim of the assault as Daniel Kerrigan, 70. (AP Photo / Steven Senne)

  By DENISE LAVOIEWOBURN, Mass. -- The brother of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was acquitted Wednesday of manslaughter in the death of their 70-year-old father by a jury that apparently agreed with his defense that his father died of heart disease.

Mark Kerrigan, 46, was convicted, though, of assault and battery in a January 2010 conflict with his father, Daniel Kerrigan, at the family's home in Stoneham, just north of Boston.

Nancy Kerrigan and her mother, Brenda, embraced and cried after the verdict was read; the skater had supported her brother and attended every day of the weeklong trial in Woburn Superior Court.

Mark Kerrigan is to be sentenced Thursday; the maximum is 2? years in prison.

Prosecutors said Mark Kerrigan caused his father's death after he grabbed him around the neck with such force that he broke cartilage in his father's larynx and triggered heart failure.

Kerrigan's defense lawyers, however, cited medical experts who testified that Daniel Kerrigan had 85 percent to 100 percent blockage of three main coronary arteries and that the cardiac dysrhythmia that killed him likely began before he had any physical interaction with his son.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley told the jury that despite his coronary artery disease, Daniel Kerrigan remained physically active right up until his death. She cited testimony from the state's chief medical examiner, who said there was no doubt in his mind that Daniel Kerrigan died after a fight that sent his heart into a fatal dysrhythmia.

"It took this defendant - an angry, mean, nasty, drunk son of his - to take Daniel Kerrigan down, to end his life," Keeley said.

Brenda Kerrigan testified that she saw her husband grab her son by his shoulders, then saw her son with his arms around his father's waist in a kind of "bear hug." She said the altercation had lasted only seconds when she saw her husband fall to the floor "like a feather coming right out of the sky."

Police testified that Mark Kerrigan told them he grabbed his father around the neck during the altercation. The defense said the injury to Daniel Kerrigan's neck could have been caused when emergency medical personnel put a tube down his throat or after he died during an autopsy, when his larynx was removed.

Nancy Kerrigan won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and the silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. At the U.S. Championships in 1994, an assailant clubbed her right knee during practice. An investigation revealed that rival Tonya Harding had knowledge of the planning of the attack.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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