O'Connor trial turns into antidrug battle

Lawyer asks jurors to stand up to dealers

By JOE MOZINGO and ANN W. O'NEILL

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES The case was about words spoken in the heat of
emotion and the damage they can do to a reputation but a
lawyer for actor Carroll O'Connor on Wednesday urged jurors to
make his slander trial a battleground in the war on drugs.

"You have the power to tell the world that in the United States,
a grieving parent can speak out against a drug dealer without
being afraid," said lawyer Lucy Inman, defending O'Connor in a
civil lawsuit brought by a man who admits supplying but not
selling cocaine to O'Connor's addicted son.

A lawyer for plaintiff Harry Perzigian, however, said that
O'Connor unfairly made his client a target in an antidrug
crusade that tattered his name and stole his peace of mind.

Allan Sigel urged the jury of six men and six women to "strike a
blow for every little guy that's ever been kicked around by a big
guy."

As jurors begin their deliberations today, they will be asked to
decide whether it is possible to ruin the reputation of a man
with a felony drug conviction. They will be told to weigh whether
O'Connor was expressing fact or opinion, and whether he went too
far by publicly blaming Perzigian for his son's 1995 suicide.

"A grieving father was using a strong figure of speech to express
his outrage over his son's cocaineinduced suicide," Inman said.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the veteran actor brandished
Perzigian's photograph in front of television cameras, identified
him as his son's drug dealer, and held him responsible for the
death of his 32yearold son.

He called Perzigian a "sleazeball" and said, "We're gonna get
you." Later, he told a national TV audience that Perzigian was "a
partner in murder" and "a lawbreaker who caused the death of a
helpless addict."

Perzigian was arrested and convicted of possessing cocaine and
furnishing it to Hugh O'Connor on one occasion three months prior
to his death. He was not convicted of selling the drug and has
denied being a drug dealer.

In his arguments to the jury, Sigel said his client had paid the
price for supplying cocaine to Hugh O'Connor.

"His price was incarceration," said the lawyer, walking toward
the actor as his voice rose. "It was not Mr. O'Connor vilifying
him, day after day after day."

The lawyer compared O'Connor to his 1970s television character,
Archie Bunker, a bigot who often lashed out at his wife, daughter
and soninlaw on the comedy All in the Family.

Perzigian, a 41yearold musician, sat with legs crossed and
faced the jury, at times sniffling and wiping his eyes as his
lawyer spoke.

Inman branded Perzigian a liar. Pointing to enlarged copies of
checks Hugh O'Connor had written to Perzigian, she asked jurors
to send a message to drug dealers.

Noting that the checks were written during a time when Hugh
O'Connor had relapsed into a drug binge after undergoing
treatment for his addiction, Inman scoffed at Perzigian's
explanation that the money was for stereo equipment. She urged
jurors to consider whether Hugh O'Connor really would have been
interested in stereo equipment at a time when he was
"delusional."

"He was hiding in his house. He was poking holes in his couch,
looking for bugs," Inman said.

Perzigian maintained through the trial that he did not sell drugs
for a living but did share them with Hugh O'Connor as a friend.