O’Connor Jury Begins Deliberating
After two weeks of emotional testimony that rehashed the drug-induced torment and suicide of Carroll O’Connor’s only son, the jury in the actor’s slander trial began deliberating Thursday and had not reach a verdict by the end of the day.
Harry Perzigian, 41, sued O’Connor after the popular television figure publicly condemned him as a drug dealer who caused the death of his son, Hugh, in 1995 by continually supplying him with cocaine.
Perzigian--who was convicted of furnishing drugs to Hugh O’Connor--insisted that he was not a drug dealer and did not profit from supplying his friend with cocaine, despite having received approximately $6,000 in checks from him.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey told the six-man, six-woman jury Thursday morning to decide whether O’Connor’s statements about Perzigian were based in fact or opinion and whether his conduct showed “actual malice.”
In deciding if Perzigian had been slandered and suffered emotional stress, the jury must answer questions about six separate statements that O’Connor made in the aftermath of his son’s suicide.
The panel also was instructed to decide whether O’Connor’s denunciations would be considered outrageous by reasonable people.
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