Kerrigan's Brother Wants To Go Back To Mass. Jail
BOSTON (AP) — Former Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan's brother, convicted of assault and battery in connection with the 2010 death of their father, wants to go back to jail to serve the rest of his sentence.
Mark Kerrigan on July 27 was released early from a county jail, where he was serving 2 1/2 years following his May 2011 conviction.
He has a hearing scheduled Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court, Probation Service spokeswoman Coria Holland said. He isn't accused of violating probation but has asked to return to jail to serve the remaining six months of his sentence, she said.
Kerrigan's probation conditions included alcohol counseling, anger management classes and mental health counseling. It will be up to the judge whether to send Kerrigan back to jail or make him continue on probation with those conditions, Holland said.
Kerrigan "communicated his wish to complete his remaining six-month prison sentence," she said.
Kerrigan's trial lawyer, Janice Bassil, did not immediately return a phone call or an email seeking comment Tuesday. A Kerrigan family spokeswoman could not immediately be reached.
Middlesex district attorney's office spokeswoman Jessica Venezia Pastore said prosecutors anticipate "the judge will determine whether it is in the best interests of the community for the defendant to be returned to jail and then subsequently released without supervision or to be ordered to comply with the conditions of probation that the sentencing judge imposed."
Prosecutors said Kerrigan caused his father's death while in a drunken rage on Jan. 24, 2010. They said he put his hands around 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan's neck with such force that he broke cartilage in his larynx and triggered his heart failure.
Mark Kerrigan was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the death at the family's home in Stoneham, just north of Boston. He received the maximum prison sentence on the assault and battery charge despite tearful pleas for leniency from relatives including his younger sister, who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and a silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
Nancy Kerrigan, at the U.S. Championships in 1994, was clubbed on her right knee by an attacker during practice. An investigation revealed that rival Tonya Harding had knowledge of the planning of the attack, which left Kerrigan on the ground clutching her leg and crying "Why me?"
Harding's ex-husband and two other men served time for planning and carrying out the attack. Harding, who didn't win a medal at the Olympics that year, pleaded guilty to covering up the attack but didn't serve any time. She received a lifetime ban by the U.S. Figure Skating Association and apologized in person to Kerrigan.
The Boston Herald first reported Mark Kerrigan's request to go back to jail.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
