Toss Kerrigan statement, lawyers ask

Mark Kerrigan has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the January 2010 death of 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan.

Kerrigan’s lawyers and his family said that the elder Kerrigan died of a longstanding heart condition and that Mark was not responsible.

Fromson, testifying for the defense, said hospital tests done approximately three hours after the altercation showed Mark Kerrigan had a blood-alcohol content of .18.

Fromson said that if the test had been done right after the fight, Kerrigan’s blood-alcohol level would probably have been as high as .24. The legal limit to drive in Massachusetts is .08.

“He was profoundly impaired,’’ Fromson said.

Under questioning from Kerrigan’s lawyers, Fromson said that in that state of intoxication, Kerrigan could not have understood his Miranda rights or voluntarily waived those rights.

Attorney Janice Bassil argued that police persisted in trying to get a statement from Kerrigan, even after he said he did not want to talk.

“They knew he was plastered — they knew it — and they wanted to get a statement,’’ Bassil said.

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley, Fromson acknowledged that he had spent just a little over an hour talking to Kerrigan months after Daniel Kerrigan died, that he did not take any notes on their conversation, and that he did not know the extent of Kerrigan’s drinking, including his four convictions on drunken driving charges.

Prosecutors said Kerrigan spontaneously and voluntarily spoke to police at the family’s Stoneham home and later at the police station.

Judge Joseph Walker III did not say when he would rule on the request to toss out Kerrigan’s statements.

In testimony Thursday, a Stoneham police officer said Kerrigan told him he “grabbed his father by the throat’’ and the older man fell to the floor as they argued over use of the family telephone.

Several police officers testified that Kerrigan was belligerent, yelled vulgarities at them, refused to walk, and had to be carried to a police cruiser when they responded to a 911 call.