Nancy Kerrigan's Brother Acquitted in Dad's Death

Mark Kerrigan dodges manslaughter charges but guilty of battery
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 25, 2011 2:46 PM CDT
Kerrigan Brother Acquitted in Father's Death
Mark Kerrigan stands in court before the jury left for deliberations at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, Mass., Wednesday.   (Nancy Lane)

The brother of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was acquitted today of manslaughter in the death of their 70-year-old father. The jury apparently agreed with his defense that Daniel Kerrigan died of heart disease, not from a scuffle between the two. Mark Kerrigan, 46, was convicted, though, of a misdemeanor assault and battery charge in the January 2010 altercation with his father at the family's home near Boston. Nancy Kerrigan and her mother, Brenda, embraced and cried after the verdict was read.

"My family has never believed at all that my brother had anything to do with my father's death, and he would, my dad would, never have wanted any of this," the former Olympian said after the verdict, standing with other family members. Both Nancy and Brenda are expected to give victim impact statements when Mark is sentenced tomorrow. He faces a maximum 2 1/2 years in a county jail. (More Nancy Kerrigan stories.)

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