O’Connor Describes His Late Son’s Descent Into Drug Addiction

Speaking in a confident, distinct voice that contrasted sharply with the tragic tale he told, actor Carroll O’Connor on Wednesday began describing for a jury his son’s descent into the drug addiction that ultimately led the young man to take his own life.

O’Connor said that after 16 years of struggling with his son Hugh’s substance abuse, he had come to recognize the faraway stare that came when Hugh was high.

“I used to say, ‘Hey kid, you’re giving me the high beams again,’ ” O’Connor said. “Then he’d put on some glasses.”

O’Connor is being sued for slander by Harry Perzigian, 41, a musician arrested and convicted of supplying cocaine to Hugh O’Connor, who shot himself in the head during his final cocaine binge. Hugh O’Connor, 33, died on March 28, 1995--his third wedding anniversary.

Shortly thereafter, Carroll O’Connor blamed Perzigian for supplying his son with the drugs that he felt led to his death. He called the Brentwood man a “sleazeball” and a “partner in murder.”

O’Connor’s testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom was interrupted late Wednesday when Perzigian’s lawyer, Allan Sigel, announced that his client “had an appointment.”

As Perzigian left the courtroom, he was taken into custody--out of jurors’ sight--by sheriff’s deputies who had come to arrest him on a $50,000 bench warrant issued by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Richard Neidorf. The warrant alleged that Perzigian had violated probation in his drug case when he was arrested June 7 for driving under the influence.

Sigel said his client would probably spend the night in jail but would be back in court today. “If Harry had not been on the news, this never would have happened,’ he said.

Perzigian, whose testimony began Tuesday and continued through most of Wednesday morning, denied being a drug dealer and claimed that his arrest in the O’Connor case and the public spotlight had traumatized him. He said he had had to seek psychiatric treatment.

He also acknowledged that he had held a “one for the gipper” cocaine party hours after Hugh O’Connor’s death. And, under cross-examination by O’Connor’s lawyer, Lucy Inman, he acknowledged that he had shared drug costs with his friend, and had accepted several checks. Some of the checks, he said, also covered the cost of stereo equipment and concert tickets.

Perzigian said he isn’t suing O’Connor for the money. Instead, he told jurors, “My purpose is to set the record right . . . to clear my name.” He also said he wished to prove “that I have a legitimate income, I’m a hard-working person. I’m not a murderer.”

Late in the afternoon, O’Connor took the stand and answered Sigel’s questions about his son’s struggle with drugs and alcohol.

Sigel said he called the actor to show that Hugh O’Connor had become addicted long before he met Perzigian, and could easily obtain cocaine even when Perzigian was thousands of miles away.

O’Connor testified that he had been aware of his son’s drug use since he caught him smoking marijuana when he was 16. “I said I didn’t want to see it around anymore,” the actor said.

As his son grew older, O’Connor said, he began showing signs of cocaine use. “We had always been very close,” he said. “Suddenly, he was unavailable.”

In 1987, O’Connor tried to remove his son from the Los Angeles drug scene by giving him a part on his show, “In the Heat of the Night,” which was being filmed in Georgia. But drugs were rampant on the set, O’Connor said.

Times staff writer Ann W. O’Neill contributed to this story