Jim Carrey. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
A judge said Wednesday she is inclined to allow the husband and mother of Jim Carrey’s former girlfriend to move forward with their wrongful death suits alleging the actor gave the woman prescription drugs that she used to commit suicide.
The lawsuits that Mark Burton and Brigid Sweetman filed against Carrey also allege violation of the Drug Dealer Liability Act in connection with the death of Cathriona White, a 30-year-old Irish citizen who was found dead at her rented Sherman Oaks home in September 2015.
Carrey and White, a hair and makeup artist, had dated off and on since 2012 while she was married to Burton.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Deirdre Hill tentatively denied defense motions to dismiss the lawsuits, but took the case under submission without issuing a final ruling. She said she wanted more briefing on whether Sweetman waited too long to file her case, as argued by defense attorney Raymond Boucher.
Boucher also contended the Drug Dealer Liability Act has no applicability in either lawsuit because it was “designed to really go after drug dealers who profit. There are no allegations Mr. Carrey profited in any fashion.”
Boucher said the wrongful death allegation is flawed because White, who was estranged from Burton, carefully planned her death and did not kill herself as a result of an “irresistible impulse.”
He stated in his court papers that White’s suicide was “an independent intervening force” that cuts off any liability Carrey could have. Boucher also said the lawsuits are a “hodgepodge of facts and allegations thrown together” that need to be clarified to be fair to the defense.
Burton’s lawsuit was filed Sept. 19 and Sweetman’s on Oct. 11. Both allege the painkillers Ambien, Propranolol and Percocet were contained in prescription bottles that were found near White’s body, all of which were acquired by Carrey while using the phony name Arthur King.
Carrey used surveillance cameras at the home to keep track of White, according to her husband’s court papers. But although the actor’s assistant knew that the footage showed White last entered the home on Sept. 24, and had not left for more than a day, neither Carrey nor the assistant called police, according to Burton’s complaint.
After White’s death, Carrey engaged in a “charade” by offering to pay her funeral expenses so as to portray himself as a “grieving good guy” as opposed to “the individual who had illegally obtained and provided the drugs that killed White,” according to Burton’s complaint.
In reality, Carrey “never paid a dime of funeral expenses,” the Burton suit alleges.
—City News Service
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