Kerry Kennedy Not Guilty of Drugged Driving, Jury Says
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KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images(WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.) — Kerry Kennedy was acquitted Friday of driving under the influence of Ambien.
After four days of testimony at a trial in White Plains, N.Y., including Kennedy’s own testimony on the stand, the jury returned a verdict on its second full day of deliberations.
The daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy and niece of President John F. Kennedy was accused of knowingly taking the sleep medication and then driving while coming under its effects.
Kerry Kennedy was charged after she crashed her Lexus SUV into a truck on a New York highway one morning in July 2013.
Kennedy, who is also the former wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, claims that she accidentally mistook the Ambien instead of her thyroid medication with a light breakfast that morning before heading to the gym, and had no idea she was coming under its effects as she drove. She said she did not remember the crash.
Kennedy’s defense attorneys have focused much of their attention on Kennedy’s famous family and presidential lineage. When she testified in the case on Wednesday, Kennedy began by explaining that her father was a civil rights leader who was killed while running for president.
She has been joined by a slew of supporters, including her mother, whom she pushed into the courthouse in a wheelchair earlier in the week, her sister Rory, and her daughters.
Kennedy could’ve faced up to a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor charge.
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