A state police drug recognition expert who examined Kerry Kennedy after she struck a tractor trailer on a Westchester highway testified Tuesday he feared she had suffered a stroke or seizure – because he didn’t believe she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“I was concerned that a medical condition might have taken place,” said Trooper Bradley Molloy during the second day of Kennedy’s drugged-driving trial.
Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, had passed a series of sobriety tests he performed at the state police barracks in Somers, convincing him she was sober.
“That’s why at Northern Westchester Hospital I wanted her to get evaluated for [medical issues]. As a drug recognition expert my opinion was there was no impairment from drugs or alcohol,” Molloy said while testifying for the prosecution.
But he was told by his supervisor to get her blood tested for drugs or booze anyway, and also that the Westchester DA’s office wanted a urine test, he said.
Molloy also said that Kennedy – the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo – was also concerned she had taken a sleeping pill instead of her thyroid meds.
“The defendant stated she was very concerned because she thought she might have accidentally taken Ambien instead of the synthroid because they were next to each other on the counter,” said Molloy, who was
called to examine Kennedy by local cops.
And at the hospital, Kennedy agreed to the tests, which disclosed a small amount of Ambien in her system.
About a dozen supporters, including a priest, joined Kennedy’s mother, Ethel, 85, in the White Plains courtroom.
Although she passed the balance and eye movement tests Molloy performed, she was placed under arrest because she had earlier failed field sobriety tests performed by North Castle cops.
Kennedy smiled at times during the testimony as she conferred with her lawyers.
Kennedy’s trial kicked off Monday with her lawyer touting her famous lineage.
“She is a daughter of Ethel and Robert Kennedy and a niece of our past president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” said high-powered Kennedy lawyer Gerald Lefcourt to jurors in the packed White Plains court room, where two of Kerry’s brothers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas, also sat.
Lefcourt rattled off other personal tidbits about his “serious and religious’’ client — even the fact that she has two daughters in Ivy League schools — but acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary was clearly unimpressed.
“Mr. Lefcourt, this isn’t evidence,’’ the judge sniffed.
She was arrested the morning of July 13, 2012, after her 2008 silver Lexus SUV hit a tractor trailer on I-684 in Westchester.
Kennedy, 54, didn’t stop and drove five miles with a blown tire before finally pulling exiting the highway.
Lefcourt claimed Monday that his client was “sleep driving’’ after accidentally taking an Ambien instead of her thyroid medication.
But prosecutors said Kennedy had to know she was under the influence of the sleeping aid when she first crashed because the drug kicks in quickly.
“She would have realized her mistake and she would have known” she had taken the wrong medication, prosecutor Stefanie DeNise insisted.
“She is responsible for her actions that day … by failing to stop her car and pull over.”
Kerry faces a single count of driving while impaired by drugs. If convicted, she could lose her license and land up to a year behind bars.
Witnesses on Monday described the accident for jurors, including Henry Myers, who called cops after seeing her hit the truck.
Under questioning from assistant DA Doreen Lloyd, he said he was at stop light getting ready to get on 684 south behind a silver Lexus with “Joe Kennedy for Congress” and “Riverkeeper” bumper stickers.
Kennedy’s driving was erratic from the moment the light turned green, he said.
“She swerved onto the grass, I thought maybe she was on her phone or something” but then swerved again as they got onto highway,’’ he said.
“The car took off pretty quick, got into the middle lane [and] then was swerving into the other lanes” at 70 to 75 mph without signalling, Myers said.
“A tractor trailer came up beside her, the Lexus hit the side of him, I saw smoke. I figured the car would stop but then as we kept going I saw a big piece of tire roll down the shoulder,” he said.
Kennedy got off at Exit 3, and Myers called 911.
A second witness, William Carlino of Armonk, whose kids go to school with Kennedy, came upon her in her car at an intersection off Exit 3 and saw her slumped against the steering wheel.
He said he didn’t recognize her at the time.
“I asked if she was OK, and she nodded in the affirmative,” he said, adding that she appeared “a bit disoriented.”
She then got back in the car and started to back up, Carlino said.He said he told her to stop, but she kept going, hitting the guard rail. That’s when he called cops, he said.
Under cross examination, Lefcourt asked, “She was out of it?”
“Yes, I would say, yes,” Carlino answered.
North Castle Police Officer Joel Thomas, under questioning by DeNise, said that as he questioned Kennedy, “Her speech was slow and deliberate.
“I asked her if she was diabetic or on any medications that would cause this condition. She said she was not.”
“She was asked to recite the alphabet from the letter J to the letter T. She performed it successfully without mistakes,’’ he said.
He said he then asked her to stand on one leg.
“She did not perform the test successfully,’’ the cop said. “She was unable to maintain her balance.”
Based on that and other balance tests, “we thought she was impaired,’’ he said.
Video from a police car shows her at one point in the back of the cruiser looking out the window with her arms crossed. She’s dressed in shorts, a tank top and sneakers; she has said she was headed to the gym at the time of the accident.
After a few minutes, it appears that her head slumps forward in the car and she’s sleeping.
After another roughly 11 minutes of the film were shown in court in which Kennedy does nothing but sleep, the frustrated judge asked, “How much longer do we see this?”