Metro

No verdict yet in Kerry Kennedy case

Kerry Kennedy’s fate is in the hands of a Westchester County jury that will continue deliberating Friday whether the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy intentionally drove while impaired by a prescription sleeping pill or was turned into a car-driving “zombie” after accidentally taking the Ambien.

The panel convened for 40 minutes before being sent home Thursday.

“We’re very happy that the jury has the case,” defense lawyer Gerald Lefcourt told reporters after a smiling Kennedy left court, pushing her mother, Ethel, in a wheelchair past a crowd.

“We look forward to hearing from the jury.”

Both sides in the misdemeanor case have conceded Kennedy had popped a generic Ambien by accident — mistaking it for her morning thyroid pill — before sideswiping a tractor trailer and continuing to drive another five miles near her Bedford home in July 2012.

But prosecutors are arguing that Kennedy, 54, must have felt the effects of the pill at some point before losing consciousness and broke the law in failing to pull over.

To find Kennedy guilty of misdemeanor impaired driving, jurors must agree that she realized she was drugged and decided to keep driving anyway.

“Make no mistake about it . . . Kerry Kennedy ingested a pill of Ambien and shortly thereafter she felt the onset systems associated with it of drowsiness and disorientation,” prosecutor Doreen Lloyd told the jury in closing arguments.

“I submit to you she became aware of those symptoms she was feeling,” before the crash, the prosecutor argued, noting that as an admitted 10-year Ambien user, Kennedy was familiar with its effects.

Even after hitting the tractor trailer on I-684, Kennedy kept driving her silver Lexus SUV before slumping at the wheel while stopped at an intersection on Route 22. “She knew. She knew right away she had taken the wrong pill because she felt it,” Lloyd maintained.

Lefcourt, in turn, reminded jurors of testimony by a pharmacologist, who told the jury that someone could mistakenly take Ambien, get behind the wheel, have no idea they are impaired and then fall asleep while continuing to drive.

“Sleep driving is in the FDA literature,” Dr. David Benjamin told jurors. “Some people call it zombie-ism,” he added.

Throughout the week, jurors have sat through testimony and statements laden with references to Kennedy’s pedigree.

On the witness stand in her own defense Wednesday, Kennedy reminded jurors she was just 8 years old when her father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated while running for president, calling him, “Daddy.”

Kennedy’s lawyer has been repeatedly reminded by the judge to trim back the lengthy biographical details and character-witness testimony.

She faces up to a year in jail if convicted.