XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: liberal-sleaze@yahoo.com   
      
   White Plains, New York (CNN) -- Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the   
   late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was acquitted in New York on Friday   
   of charges of driving under the influence of a drug.   
      
   A jury deliberated for an hour and 10 minutes following a four-   
   day trial that featured Kennedy's turn on the witness stand.   
      
   After jurors left the courtroom, Kennedy friends and family   
   members, including her 85-year-old mother, Ethel Kennedy,   
   applauded.   
      
   Kennedy hugged lawyers, William Aronwald and Gerald Lefcourt,   
   and, in an unusual move, shook the hands of the prosecutors.   
      
   As people filed out of courtroom, Kennedy told reporters she was   
   not angry with the prosecutors who brought the case.   
      
   The 54-year-old former wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced   
   a charge of driving while impaired after swerving off the road   
   in her Lexus SUV and careening into a tractor-trailer on a New   
   York interstate in morning rush-hour traffic in July 2012.   
      
   Outside court, Kennedy said she was "unbelievably grateful."   
      
   Lefcourt suggested that the prosecution pursued the case because   
   of her name.   
      
   "You've got to wonder why an ill-advised prosecution like this   
   was brought," the attorney said. "Is it because of who the   
   defendant is? They concede that it was an accident and   
   nevertheless they brought this case. I find this very   
   depressing."   
      
   In a statement Friday, the Westchester County District   
   Attorney's office said: "We prosecute 2,500 impaired driving   
   cases annually in Westchester County. This case was treated no   
   differently from any of the others. The jury heard all the   
   evidence in this case and we respect their verdict."   
      
   Kennedy testified this week that she grabbed the wrong   
   prescription bottle from her kitchen counter that morning and   
   swallowed 10 milligrams of zolpidem, a sleep aid also known by   
   the brand name Ambien. Neither she nor prosecutors disputed the   
   fact that she drove erratically after taking the medication and   
   sideswiped a tractor-trailer in Westchester County before she   
   was found, slumped over her steering wheel, her car stalled.   
      
   "I now know thanks to the tox lab that I must have taken the   
   sleeping medication by mistake," said Kennedy, looking at the   
   jury as she testified.   
      
   Kennedy said she made cappuccino, had some carrots, prepared   
   bags for the gym and office and had no problem leaving her   
   apartment and getting to her vehicle the morning of the accident.   
      
   Her memory from that morning ends just before she entered the   
   highway, Kennedy said. The next thing she recalls is a knock on   
   the window of her SUV, and a man she thought was a police   
   officer asking if she was OK.   
      
   "I was confused by that because I thought I was fine," she said   
   on the stand.   
      
   During a contentious cross examination, Kennedy insisted that   
   she would not have stayed behind the wheel if she'd felt the   
   effects of the medication.   
      
   "If I'd realized I was impaired, I would have pulled over," she   
   told prosecutor Doreen Lloyd, and also said she doesn't know   
   what the side effects of zolpidem might feel like.   
      
   "You've taken this pill for 10 years and you can't tell me   
   whether or not it makes you feel tired after you take it?" Lloyd   
   asked.   
      
   "I guess I don't really think about how I'm feeling when I take   
   it," Kennedy replied. "I take it, and then I'm asleep."   
      
   In closing arguments, the prosecution accused Kennedy of lying   
   to police and the public to protect her legacy.   
      
   "She had a lot on her mind that morning. And she took the wrong   
   pill by mistake," prosecutor Doreen Lloyd told jurors. "However,   
   it also makes no sense whatsoever that at no point did she   
   realize or feel tired or dizzy or drowsy. That makes no sense,"   
   she said. "She is responsible for the chain of events that   
   happened after that."   
      
   Lloyd told jurors that Kennedy had a responsibility to pull off   
   the road safely when she felt the effect of the drug. Her   
   inconsistent statements about the incident, including the claim   
   that her doctors said she'd had a seizure, were meant as a   
   smokescreen, Lloyd said. "She knew. She knew right away that she   
   had taken the wrong pill. She felt it. And I submit she was   
   looking for an excuse, to avoid responsibility ... to control   
   her public image."   
      
   Lefcourt told jurors there's no disputing that Kennedy ingested   
   zolpidem and was "out of it" the morning of the crash.   
      
   "The dispute is this: Whether the prosecution has proved to you   
   beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Kennedy operated her vehicle   
   while she was aware that she had ingested zolpidem and, after   
   becoming aware, she continued intentionally to drive. That's   
   what this case is all about."   
      
   The jury of two women and four men began its deliberations   
   Thursday afternoon. They stopped for the day without reaching a   
   verdict before resuming deliberations Friday morning.   
      
   Kennedy faced up to a year in jail if convicted.   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/28/justice/kerry-kennedy-dwi-trial/   
      
        
      
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