> 07/17/1997 00:30 EST
>
> O'Connor Testifies in Slander Suit
>
> By LINDA DEUTSCH
> AP Special Correspondent
>
> LOS ANGELES (AP) Carroll O'Connor told jurors
> in the slander suit against him that he found out
> his son was using marijuana at 16 and cocaine at
> 20, but wasn't able to stop his son's slide into
> addiction and suicide.
>
> The actor's testimony, which was to continue
> Thursday, was interrupted at day's end when
> sheriff's deputies arrived to arrest the man who
> is suing him.
>
> Harry Perzigian was jailed on a warrant charging
> him with a probation violation a drunkdriving
> arrest in June. His lawyer said he would post
> $50,000 bond for Perzigian and have him back in
> court Thursday.
>
> Hugh O'Connor, 32, shot himself in March 1995
> after a long battle with drugs and alcohol.
> Perzigian, 41, is suing the elder O'Connor for
> slander based on TV interviews in which the actor
> called him ``a sleazeball'' and ``a partner in
> murder'' for supplying cocaine to his son.
>
> O'Connor, speaking in a husky voice, told jurors
> that he forbade his son from bringing marijuana
> into the house after discovering he was using it.
>
> ``I said, `I don't want to see it around here,'''
> O'Connor recalled. ``... One word from me and he
> did as he pleased.''
>
> Under questioning by Perzigian's lawyer, Allan
> Sigel, O'Connor said he suggested his son get
> medical help after learning he was using cocaine.
>
> He said his son told him: ``What for, pops? I
> don't have a problem.''
>
> O'Connor said he could tell by his son's blank
> stare that he was high.
>
> ``I used to say, `Hey kid, you're giving me the
> high beams again,' and he would whip on the
> glasses.''
>
> O'Connor, star of TV's ``All in the Family,'' said
> he took his son to Georgia to remove him from the
> Los Angeles drug scene and appear in his TV series
> ``In the Heat of the Night.'' But O'Connor said
> the problems continued because cocaine use was
> rampant on the set.
>
> O'Connor said his son became close to Howard
> Rollins, one of the show's stars who eventually
> was written out of the series because of drug
> problems. Rollins died in 1996, reportedly from
> lymphoma.
>
> O'Connor said he once asked Rollins how he got the
> drugs.
>
> ``Pops, you get 'em everywhere,'' he replied.
> ``Put your head out the window and yell `heroin'
> and guys will come up with them. Yell `coke' and
> guys come running.''
>
> O'Connor said he confronted both Rollins and his
> son and asked them to give up drugs.
>
> ``They refused to give me guarantees of any
> kind,'' he said.
>
> Sigel said outside court that he was trying to
> demonstrate that others besides Perzigian supplied
> drugs to the younger O'Connor, and that Perzigian
> was not responsible for Hugh O'Connor's death.
>
> Perzigian, who served a brief prison sentence for
> furnishing the cocaine, has said he considered the
> younger O'Connor a friend.
>
> Sigel also said that Perzigian probably would
> settle for an apology from O'Connor to end the
> suit.
>
> O'Connor's lawyers said Perzigian has asked for
> $10 million and is clearly motivated by money.
>
> ``Why are we here?'' O'Connor attorney Lucy Inman
> said outside court. ``Why would you put a grieving
> father through this? He's in it for the money.''