Farrah Fawcett's Ex Convicted

A Santa Monica jury has convicted director Jame Orr of one count of misdemeanor battery for beating his ex-girlfriend actress Farrah Fawcett during a brawl in January.

He was acquitted on a second battery count involving an August 28th, 1997, altercation.

Fawcett testified Orr slammed her head at least twice on his driveway during the fight and tried to choke her.

Orr faces up to one year in jail and a $6,000 when he's sentenced October 6.

Orr was charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly pushing her down, slamming her head to the driveway and trying to choke her during a fight that followed an argument at a restaurant. Fawcett has admitted to smashing his windows with a baseball bat and that the two squared off with bar stools during the fight.

The prosecutor said Orr, 44, was retaliating rather than preventing damage to his property, as the defense claimed during the trial.

Defense attorney Don Wager told jurors Orr was faced "with an obsessively jealous and violent woman."

"This is a woman who required her boyfriend to give her the code of his answering machine so she could check his messages," the lawyer said, adding, "and of course that wild jealousy translates into action."

Fawcett committed crimes against Orr but was granted immunity so the prosecution could build a case, Wager said.

Orr, a Hollywood writer, director and producer whose credits include Three Men and a Baby, testified during trial that the couple began arguing after the actress found in the trash two books mailed by Orr's ex-girlfriend.

The couple went to a restaurant, where they argued more before returning home, he said. Fawcett firmly pinched his cheeks, kicked the back of his car seat and hit him in the shoulders and head as he drove home, he said.

Later, she took her belongings from Orr's home and prepared to leave, he said.

He said he told her to go home, but she threatened to break his windows if he went inside. Once inside, Orr heard glass break and opened the door to find Fawcett crouching, as if ready to hurl something, he said.

"I said, 'That's it!'" He said he ran after her up the driveway, where the actress fell backward and hit her head.

"She started kicking at me," he said, so he straddled her. "I thought I was restraining her and getting her to calm down," but "she was fighting me like a wildcat."

Orr denied banging Fawcett's head on the asphalt or putting his fingers on her throat.

©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed