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Don't try this in Georgetown
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Topic Started: Feb 5 2014, 08:04 PM (276 Views)
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Quasimodo
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Feb 5 2014, 08:04 PM
Post #1
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http://nypost.com/2014/02/05/ny-da-fights-dismissal-in-kennedy-driving-case/
NY DA fights dismissal in Kennedy driving case February 5, 2014
WHITE PLAINS, NY — Even if Kerry Kennedy accidentally drugged herself with a sleeping pill before getting in her car, she broke the law if she kept driving after feeling the drug’s effects, prosecutors say.
In filings Tuesday, the Westchester County district attorney’s office asked a judge to reject Kennedy’s second attempt to have her drugged-driving case dismissed. Prosecutors said a dismissal would send the wrong message to the public about how “people of wealth and power” are treated.
Kennedy is the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the niece of the late President John F. Kennedy.
In 2012, she was arrested after her car hit a tractor-trailer on an interstate highway near her home in the New York City suburbs. Tests revealed a small amount of the sleeping drug zolpidem in her blood. She said she accidentally took a sleeping pill instead of her daily thyroid medication.
When a new judge, acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary, took over the case last month, Kennedy’s lawyer Gerald Lefcourt made a new motion for dismissal, saying the prosecution had recently acknowledged it had no evidence that Kennedy intentionally took the pill.
The district attorney’s office said a jury should determine at trial whether Kennedy took the pill accidentally. But the prosecutor said that “even if the initial ingestion was ‘accidental’ … continuing to drive when she realized she was impaired violated the law.”
Noting that judges have to consider “the impact of a dismissal upon the confidence of the public in the criminal justice system,” prosecutors used the exact wording they employed in successfully fighting the previous dismissal motion. They said a dismissal “would feed a public perception that people of wealth and privilege are treated differently than others.”
[IOW, justice must not be blind; but must treat people of "wealth and privilege" differently than others? What happens in cases where the public demands a conviction, but the person of "wealth and privilege" is actually innocent? For the sake of "public perception", should we then convict anyway?]
The defense has said in the past that Kennedy’s fame is being held against her. In its new motion, the defense again praised her service in promoting international human rights and included letters from family and friends extolling her work. It said a conviction might give leaders of guilty nations “a basis to deny Ms. Kennedy entry.”
[Anybody think that sullying the names of the three Duke defendants--or the entire team, for that matter--might hamper the good they could accomplish in the future? Not only must "individuals suffer for the good of the organization", but also, had there been convictions, all those whom they might have helped?]
The defense motion also asked the judge — if he denies the dismissal — to send the case to a grand jury to determine if the charge is warranted. Prosecutors “have abdicated their responsibilities,” Lefcourt wrote.
Grand juries are rare in misdemeanor cases, and prosecutors said no such order has been issued in 35 years.
[So are full-blown trials for shouting at someone (probably a first); but hey, it's all about public perception, isn't it?]
If the case is not dismissed or transferred to a grand jury, Kennedy’s trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 24. She has said she will miss jury selection because she will be on a human rights mission in Europe and Africa.
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Quasimodo
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Feb 5 2014, 08:07 PM
Post #2
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Of course, Joseph Kennedy got a break after being under the influence in DC and ramming his car into a light pole.
And so did Cynthia McKinney for striking a capitol policeman.
But those cases were different. . .no reason to hold a trial or ban them from the city for six months...
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Quasimodo
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Feb 23 2014, 09:09 AM
Post #3
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http://tinyurl.com/k73bfjy
2/23/14
Kerry Kennedy 'set to admit leaving the scene of an accident so she avoids drug charge over car crash'
Kerry Kennedy may agree to a plea deal over driving while drugged charges stemming from a 2012 accident so she can continue her extensive human rights work.
Kennedy, 54, is afraid a conviction would bring with it restrictions that would curtail her international travels – she has visited several dozen countries on humanitarian missions.
The plea deal was previously discussed between her legal team and prosecutors before being shelved, but her attorneys have brought it back to the table with her trial slated to start Monday, according to the New York Daily News.
Lawyers originally tabled the deal while preparing a defense explaining former Senator Robert F Kennedy’s daughter took Ambien by mistake – she meant to take thyroid medication, sources told the paper.
‘Our defense in this case is that Kerry Kennedy did not knowingly and intentionally ingest those sleeping pills,’ her lawyer explained Friday in court.
‘The pills are very similar,’ he added. ‘She took what she thought was her thyroid medication.’
The former wife of current New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Kennedy was travelling between the Western Sahara and Brussels, Belgium during last week’s jury selection process, sources said.
Kennedy faces a misdemeanor charge of driving while impaired by drugs after colliding July 13, 2012 with a tractor trailer on a suburban New York highway, authorities said.
She fled the scene of the accident and subsequently tested positive for Ambien several hours later, police said at the time.
There were no injuries in the crash, which Kennedy told cops she did not remember, and the only damage was a flat tire to her 2008 Lexus SUV.
Her legal team told the Daily News she is ready to take the stand in her own defense if need be. A Westchester County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the paper that authorities are ready for trial.
‘We will be presenting our case on Monday morning in court.’
If convicted, Kennedy could also lose her driver's license for up to six months.
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