All American Girl’s Brother acquitted of involuntary manslaughter

[ChasC5]

Tonya Harding got to be asking … who was his lawyer?

WOBURN -- Mark Kerrigan, the brother of Olympian Nancy Kerrigan, was acquitted today of an involuntary manslaughter charge but convicted of the lesser charge of assault and battery in the confrontation that preceded his father's death at the family’s Stoneham home in January 2010.

As the verdict was read in Middlesex Superior Court, Mark Kerrigan showed little emotion, but family members in the courtroom, who had supported him in spite of the charges brought in the wake of the death of 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan, hugged and broke into tears.

"My family has never believed at all that my brother had anything to do with my father's death," Nancy Kerrigan said outside the courthouse, as she clutched her mother's arm. "My dad never would have wanted any of this."
“I think this is a fair, reasonable, and just verdict from a contemplative jury,” District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a telephone interview.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Jane Haggerty scheduled a sentencing hearing for 9 a.m. Thursday.

Prosecutors had argued that Mark Kerrigan, 46, fought with his father, grabbing him by the neck, crushing the cartilage there, and triggering his heart failure.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Keeley said in closing arguments Monday that the son’s “actions set into motion a natural and continuous sequence of events that led to Daniel Kerrigan’s death.”

But defense attorney Janice Bassil argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. She suggested that the elder Kerrigan’s heart failure began before he started grappling with his son.

She said the elder man had a long history of coronary artery disease. She conceded that Mark Kerrigan told police he had grabbed his father by the neck, but she told jurors that they could not rely on what he said that night, because he was drunk.

“This has been an enormous ordeal for Nancy and particularly her mother,” Bassil said outside the courthouse.

“I would have liked a not-guilty verdict on everything. I don’t think the government proved its case. I’m glad the jury saw the truth, that there was no manslaughter here, there was no killing here, and they convicted him of the least charge they could,” she said.

“It was going to boil down to the facts, the science, and the medicine, and that’s what the jury understood,” she said.

She said Nancy Kerrigan would likely give a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing requesting the judge keep the sentence to a minimum. She said the maximum sentence was 2 1/2 years in jail.

The family supported the son through the trial. The trial had featured tearful testimony by Daniel Kerrigan’s wife, Brenda, who disputed that the confrontation between her son and husband, which she witnessed, was a “fight.” Mrs. Kerrigan also twice sat through the playing of the 911 tape from the night of Jan. 23, 2010, which featured her frantic voice reporting the trouble in her home.

After closing arguments were delivered, jurors deliberated 4 ½ hours on Monday, then 8 hours on Tuesday, before resuming deliberations for about three hours this morning.

Nancy Kerrigan won a silver medal in the 1994 Olympics and a bronze in the 1992 Olympics. She made headlines of a different kind when she was attacked in 1994 by a man linked to one of her competitors, Tonya Harding.

Nancy Kerrigan's brother convicted of assault and battery in death of father

Good thing this didn't happen in the hood or he would be done for.

[Chris Fowler]

Trying to find what's funny or entertaining about this...and failing.

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Chris Fowler

Trying to find what's funny or entertaining about this...and failing.

You’re a Republican, nothing fun anymore for you.

[Yerf Dog]

[Chris Fowler]

Originally Posted by ChasC5

You’re a Republican

That's a dirty thing to call me...

nothing fun anymore for you.

Hard to find humor in the death and sentencing of others.

This, on the other hand, I found funny just yesterday, remember?

https://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/p...chop-what.html

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Yerf Dog

She actually looks better in time.

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Chris Fowler

That's a dirty thing to call me...



Hard to find humor in the death and sentencing of others.

This, on the other hand, I found funny just yesterday, remember?

https://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/p...chop-what.html

As you can see, I did also.

[RetiredSFC 97]

I didn't see what they were fighting about, anyone know?