Skater Kerrigan's brother wants to go back to jail

[August 08, 2012]  WOBURN, Mass. (AP) -- The brother of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is expected to ask a judge to send him back to jail to finish his sentence on an assault and battery conviction in connection with the death of their 70-year-old father.

Mark Kerrigan was released early from a county jail on July 27. He was serving 2 1/2 years following his May 2011 conviction.

Probation Service spokeswoman Coria Holland said Kerrigan has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court. He isn't accused of violating probation but has asked to return to jail to serve the remaining six months of his sentence, she said.

Kerrigan's probation conditions included alcohol counseling, anger management classes and mental health counseling. Holland said it will be up to the judge whether to send Kerrigan back to jail or have him continue on probation with those conditions.

Middlesex District Attorney's office spokeswoman Jessica Venezia Pastore said prosecutors expect the judge will determine "whether it is in the best interests of the community for Kerrigan to be returned to jail and then subsequently released without supervision or to be ordered to comply with the conditions of probation that the sentencing judge imposed."

Kerrigan's trial lawyer, Janice Bassil, did not return a phone call or an email seeking comment. A Kerrigan family spokeswoman could not be reached.

Prosecutors said Kerrigan caused his father's death while in a drunken rage at the family's home in Stoneham, north of Boston, on Jan. 24, 2010. They said he put his hands around 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan's neck with such force that he broke cartilage in his larynx and triggered heart failure.

Mark Kerrigan was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter. He received the maximum prison sentence on the assault and battery charge despite tearful pleas for leniency from relatives including his younger sister, Nancy, who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and a silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

[Associated Press]

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