Nancy Kerrigan's Brother Pleads Not Guilty

Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan's brother has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in Massachusetts in the death of their father.

Forty-five-year-old Mark Kerrigan entered the plea Friday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn.

Prosecutors say 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan died after a violent clash Jan. 24 with his son in the family home in Stoneham, outside Boston. The family insists Mark Kerrigan is not responsible for his father's death. He has been living in the family home since being released on bail.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter in Massachusetts is 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Kerrigan was in a drunken rage over the use of the family telephone when the conflict escalated into violence.

Police received an emergency call around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 on reports of an altercation between Mark Kerrigan and a female acquaintance, Leone said. The woman said Kerrigan wouldn't let her leave the house.

Daniel Kerrigan returned home to try to calm his son. Over the next six hours, Mark Kerrigan became drunk and repeatedly argued with his parents, trying to use the phone to contact the woman. He had already left more than a dozen messages on her cell phone, prosecutors said.

After midnight, Mark Kerrigan went into his parents' bedroom, screaming obscenities and yelling about the telephone not working, authorities said. They went to talk to their son downstairs, where the argument escalated into violence, with their son pushing, grabbing and shoving his father, with several pictures knocked off a wall, prosecutors said.

Mark Kerrigan grabbed his father around the neck, fracturing his larynx and causing him to fall to the floor on his back, unconscious, Leone said. Kerrigan's mother, Brenda, called emergency services; Mark Kerrigan is heard screaming obscenities at his father.

When police approached Mark Kerrigan, he swore at them as they attempted to subdue him. Once handcuffed, Kerrigan acknowledged the fight but told police his father was "faking it," Leone said.

Mark Kerrigan has a long criminal record, with convictions dating to 1991, including drunken driving, assault and battery, domestic assaults, resisting arrest and violation of a restraining order. His former lawyer said Kerrigan, an unemployed plumber, was on medication for post-traumatic stress syndrome and was seeing a psychiatrist.

Kerrigan's family has challenged the medical examiner's findings.

In a letter released in February, Nancy Kerrigan, a two-time Olympic medal winner, called the homicide ruling "unjustified" and said she and her family plan to "help my brother fight" the finding.

Nancy Kerrigan, of Lynnfield, won the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and the silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. She won a gold medal at the 1993 U.S. Championships.

She was at the center of a saga at the U.S. Championships before the 1994 Games, when an assailant clubbed her right knee during practice and an investigation revealed rival Tonya Harding had knowledge of the planning of the attack.