O’Connor Defends Remarks in Slander Case

Called to explain why he publicly branded the man convicted of furnishing his son with drugs as a “partner in murder,” actor Carroll O’Connor testified Thursday that his words were figurative, but insisted that the label was accurate.

“Anybody who deals deadly substances to addicts causing the death of addicts is a partner in that addict’s murder,” he said loudly and unequivocally, referring to his son Hugh taking his own life during a drug binge. “How could I have meant that literally when Hugh committed suicide?”

Facing heated questioning by the plaintiff’s attorney in a Los Angeles courtroom, O’Connor conceded that Hugh got drugs from many people, whom he didn’t vilify on television as he did Harry Perzigian, the man who is suing him for slander.

Asked why he broadcast a picture taken of Perzigian sitting in jail, the actor seemed to take on a particularly Archie Bunker-like air. “I wanted the world to see that he looked like a mess,” said O’Connor, explaining that Perzigian had “long hair” and a “Turkish hat.” Responding to another question, he boomed, “I don’t like ponytails on men!”

Perzigian, who had been taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies Wednesday afternoon for violating his probation, arrived in court two hours late Thursday after his release from jail was delayed.

After his attorney read a long deposition to bide time, the jury heard testimony from a psychiatrist who treated Perzigian for depression and a criminologist who said the plaintiff told him he was Hugh O’Connor’s “connection” for cocaine.