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Subscribe to RSSHuman rights activist Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy and the ex-wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was charged for drug-impaired driving. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
Kerry Kennedy, a human rights activist and the ex-wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was arrested and charged with driving while impaired by drugs Friday morning after the car she was driving collided with a tractor-trailer on a freeway in the town of North Castle, N.Y., state police confirmed Saturday.
A spokesman for Kennedy denied that tests for impairment were positive.
"Kerry Kennedy voluntarily took breathalyzer, blood and urine tests — all of which showed no drugs or alcohol whatsoever in her system," said Ken Sunshine. "The charges were filed before the test results were available."
According to the police statement, 911 calls reported the car moving erratically on the freeway before hitting the tractor-trailer. The collision caused a flat tire and Kennedy exited the freeway, it said. Kennedy, 52, was found seated at the wheel of the disabled vehicle by North Castle Police.
State police arrived and found Kennedy to be impaired by drugs, it said.
Kennedy, who lives in Bedford, N.Y., was not injured, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed person close to her.
A Forbes report speculated that the incident was a case of "sleep driving" — a rare side effect of the sleep aid Ambien that causes users to get out of bed and drive while still asleep with no memory of their actions — but did not quote any sources close to Kennedy who could corroborate the speculation.
The New York Daily News reported that Kennedy told police she had taken Ambien, citing an unnamed law enforcement source, who also said she was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital where she consented to a blood test, the results of which are expected in about a week.
Kennedy, born Mary Kerry Kennedy, is the seventh of eleven children born to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. She is president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Washington, D.C.
Her accident comes just a week after the body of another member of the Kennedy clan, the late Mary Richardson Kennedy, was exhumed and reburied 700 feet away.
Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was a close friend of Kerry Kennedy's since childhood. After she died, Kerry Kennedy wrote a tribute about her describing her as her "best friend," writing in The Huffington Post on May 22, "Mary was brilliant, strikingly beautiful, radiant, luminous, spritiual, funny, fun."
Kerry Kennedy is due in North Castle Court on Tuesday, according to the Bedford-Katonah Patch news site.
NBC contributed to this report
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Leave a Comment:
As an Ambien taker myself, I can confirm that the possibility of "sleep driving" is real. If you make the effort to check (fat chance with these idiots), you would see that there is substantial evidence of this occurring.
Robert, you are right. Definitely embarrassing to see such rampant ignorance. It's like watching a terrible wreck in awe.
A little old lady in a grocery line once said to me 'No good ever came to a family who made their money from booze.'
DUI? Runs in the family, doesn't it!
Not to worry. She'll go into rehab next week for "exhaustion".
This is where having a little money and/or influence goes a long way. I've known people who had a urinary tract infection (proven with blood test, and other test), that had went septic, and they were acting erractic; but law enforcement insisted they were on drugs, even after the fact. How does it feel, Ms. Kennedy? Baseless accusations destroy lives every day.
How about this for a new TV program: CAN YOU TOP THIS?
The K's have had a full, but un-eventful, week - - by their standards.
Were did all of these trolls come from? Amazing. Hate filled little people.
Hate or just decades of privilege and immunity coming home to roost? The US is a republic, not a kingdom. Where were you when the Kennedy's escaped responsibility for their personal misconduct? At least the Kennedy's haven't suffered the fate of Marie Antoinette when her royal status ended.
Stupid response.
texting while driving.
I do not see how the new media can report that she was drunk, if she was not drunk... I am sure she was drunk.
"The charges were filed before the test results came back?" If you get a breathalizer it is done in the field where the accident occured. Why lie about it? That can only add fuel to the fire, and make it more of a story...
we dont have freeways in NY, we have highways, thruways and parkways. thats all i have to say.
Red meat for the Pubs. Facts be damned.
It is sad where this family has ended up. No sympathy either because of years of entitlement from them playing royalty
"F" them all.
The Kennedy clan sense of entitlement includes DUI. Evidently human rights does not include the right not to be hit by an impaired driver. Kennedy hypocrisy at its usual level.
Some how I don't think she will be in court on tuesday.
Another victim along with Sage Stallone and Rick Calamaro of the insidious, mass murdering American Drug Cartel, Pfizer, Endo, Purdue Pharma and their enablers in politics, advertising, media and medicine. The medical industrial complex, especially the drug companies own Obama, owned Bush and owned or own Guiliani, Dodd, Frank, the FDA and most of both houses of congress.They've fatally poisoned 450,000 Americans since 1995 and 40,000 in 2011 alone and are getting away with it. The CEOs, CFOs, lawyers, researchers, Dr.s and salesmen for these companies should be taken to a football field and forced to down a few vial fulls of their poison pills (benzos, semi-synthethic opioids and anti-depressants) and chase it with Jack Daniels straight. Kerry Kennedy is lucky she's not dead.
Of course all you perfect people with perfect families would jump on this story like flies on @!$%#! i'm certain many of you self rightous asses have a few drunks, drug addicts, thieves, pedaphiles and maybe even murderers in your closets. Your sins just don't make the headlines so you all feel so superior. your lucky your all anonymous.
nh_ladybug ....I am sure some of us do....but this family has committed just about every crime out there!!
Scary to think that we still have Kennedy's in government! Scary to think about ALL the lying...deceiving...corrupt people we have in government.
sigh.........can't educate the closed minded.
tests showed no "drugs" or "alcohol"....so it wasn't the ambien. Then again, the Kennedys can pay enough money to buy anybody off and have them say what the Kennedys want to be said. This family is one screwed up mess who are solely responsible for the tragedy in their lives.
If in fact she had Ambien in her system, and the cause of the accident was due to the side effects of the drug, I'm afraid all of you have this all wrong. Not only should this person be released, the drug maker would be responsible for the damage caused in the accident. Companies that are in the business of manufacturing have Products Liability insurance for a reason.
Let's all move on to a local rapist story now shall we?
The troubles that this 2nd generation of Kennedy's is an indication of just how traumatized the family has been by the assassinations of JFK and RFK. Almost all of this generation seems to have had substance abuse and psychological problems and many of them died untimely deaths. It's encouraging that the 3rd generation seems to be doing well with no reports of problems that I have seen. Joseph P Kennedy III is running for Barney's Franks's seat in Congress and will probably win. It will be interesting to see what happens with the 3rd generation as time passes!
The Kennedy curse strikes again.
So more important, was the trucker ok? Who cares about another drunk azz stupid spoiled brat Kennedy jerk offf
I can believe the Ambien story because i use to take Ambien. I took it for nearly 10 years and it got to the point that i would get up at night and walk around. I have fallen down my steps any number of times and thank goodness i never tried to drive. I hve gone to sleep in bed and wakeup in my basement and not know how i got there. One tim eI fell and the rescue squad had to be called. when they got there i thought one of the EMT's was my daughter. She lives in Omaha 1100 miles away. It took my wife two hours to convince me that ishe wasn't my daughter. Ambien is some weird stuff.
SOS for the Kennedy's. At least she didn't kill someone and leave the scene. MSLSD now links with the libtards at newsvine. How pathetic.
Kennedy = drugs and booze - always has, always will.
No royalty here folks.