Kerry Kennedy testified in her own defense at her drugged driving trial Wednesday – wasting no time invoking her assassinated “daddy” Robert F. Kennedy.
“Daddy was the attorney general during the civil rights movement, and then a senator,” Kennedy told a six-person Westchester jury in the misdemeanor case, which is set to reach deliberations Thursday.
“I have 10 brothers and sisters. My mother raised us because my father died when I was 8,” the 54-year-old said, her voice shaky as she explained why she grew up in Virginia.
“He was assassinated while running for president,” she added.
Ethel Kennedy, 85, was in court as Kerry revived the memory of her late husband’s shooting in 1968, as were Kerry’s daughter Michaela and sisters Rory Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland.
Jurors listened impassively as Kennedy’s lawyer led her through a blatant bid for sympathy that included references not only to her being a Kennedy orphan, but a mom, a human rights leader, a fundraiser for Haitian orphans, an almost daily church-goer and a former Sunday school teacher.
After describing her family and work history, Kennedy flatly denied that she knew she had taken a sleeping pill before a July 2012 highway accident.
“Let’s get right to the point. Did you intentionally or knowingly take the zolpidem that morning?” her lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, asked her, referring to the sleep aid known by the brand name Ambien.
“No I did not,” Kennedy replied. “I was going to the gym and then I was going on to New York City to go to work.”
The lawyer then asked if she mistakenly took the Ambien instead of the thyroid drug.
“That’s what I now believe,” she said, her voice still quavering in the packed White Plains courtroom, where the audience also included Kennedy pal and actress Diane Neal, who played a prosecutor on the TV show “Law and Order SVU.”
“I thought I was taking my synthroid. I now know thanks to the tox lab that I took my zolpidem by mistake.”
The two pills were in similar CVS bottles and are both pastel colored, though of slightly different hues.
Lefcourt then asked her if she had any clue she was under the influence of the sleeping aid – as the prosecution has said she should have been.
“No I didn’t,” she replied.
The niece of the late President John F. Kennedy sideswiped a tractor trailer while driving on Interstate 684 near her Bedford home.
She 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.
Kennedy – also the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo – had repeatedly insisted she took an Ambien pill by mistake before the accident.
Kennedy said she had no problem leaving her house and driving toward the interstate the morning of the accident – but blacked out after she got on the highway.
“I remember thinking how beautiful the light was filtering through the trees at that hour,” she said, detailing her route along several back roads to 684.
“And then I have no memory until my car was at a stop on Route 22” after the accident, where cops found her slumped over the wheel of her car.
“I really just don’t remember. I remember getting onto the exit ramp and um, just the approach to 684. And then I have no memory of it until I was on Route 22.
She said her first memory was of a police officer knocking on her car door – and that she was shocked to find out she had been in an accident.
“He asked me if I was OK. I was confused by that because I thought I was fine. I couldn’t get my car to go forward so I thought he could help me with that,” she said.
“He said ‘Have you been in an accident?’ And I said no because as far as I was concerned I hadn’t been in an accident.Then I got out of my car and walked around and the saw the tire that had been blown out and the marks, and I was really shocked,” she said.
Kennedy then testified that she remembered performing sobriety tests performed by both local cops and a state trooper. She passed the latter but failed the former, according to earlier testimony, resulting in her arrest.
Under cross examination by Assistant DA Doreen Lloyd, Kennedy acknowledged that she has had a prescription for Ambien for 10 years, to help her sleep on long flights so she is fresh for business when she arrives.
“You’ve been taking it for a decade?” Lloyd asked.
“Yes on and off, I take it when I travel though multiple time zones and I when I get home to adjust to the time zone here. I would take it for a few nights while I was adjusting,” she said.
The prosecutor then pursued a line of questioning trying to show that Kennedy should have been aware of the drug’s effects.
“After ingesting the pill on those prior occasions didn’t you feel tired?” she asked.
“Well I’d been in bed and I’d just go to sleep, I don’t recall feeling tired,” Kennedy replied.
“Your synthroid doesn’t make you feel tired or drowsy when you take it, correct?” Lloyd then asked, and Kennedy agreed.
Lloyd then chided Kennedy for carelessly taking the wrong pill without checking the bottle.
“It would have taken you only a second to read that pill bottle,” Lloyd said.
“I really wish I had or we wouldn’t be here today,” Kennedy replied.
“Would you agree that was careless of you?” Lloyd asked.
“I would,” Kennedy answered.
The prosecutor then got Kennedy to agree that she was responsible for what she put in her body.
Kennedy had earlier detailed her human rights work, talking about her travels to Greece, Switzerland, Uganda and France to advance the causes she supports – prompting the judge to question the relevancy of her testimony.
“There is no question about the work that you do, but I’m not sure this is the forum to go into this exhaustive detail,” said Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary.
Earlier Wednesday, Lefcourt called a parade of character witnesses, again prompting Neary to cry uncle.
First up was Larry Cox, director of the human rights organization KAIROS, and a longtime Kennedy friend.
“She’s one of the most highly respected humans rights leaders extant today. I have never in my experience ever encountered any dishonesty from Kerry on anything. Her reputation is impeccable for honesty,” Cox told the six-person jury.
Next was Alexander Lopez, who worked for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights as Kerry’s personal assistant.
“She was very honest. I’ve never known anyone to have an opinion that would say otherwise. Absolutely no issues with sobriety. She’s an outstanding citizen, very responsible,” Lopez gushed.
Emily Liebert, a magazine editor who lived near Kennedy in Bedford, praised her pal’s mothering skills.
“I came to know her very well. We became very close friends,” she said.
“Kerry has always been known to me and those around her for her honesty. I have never heard anything negative with respect to Kerry’s honesty. I have always known Kerry to be completely sober.”
As Lefcourt continued to question Liebert, Neary had had enough.
“I think we’re beyond the scope of character witness, I don’t want to say tedious, but beyond the scope,” the judge wearily said.
Liebert also said she spoke to Kennedy the day of the accident and that Kennedy had said then she thought she had taken the Ambien by mistake.
“Kerry told me that she had been in an accident that morning and that she was very concerned one of two things had happened. That she’d had a seizure or mistakenly taken one of her zolpidem pills that morning,” she said.
“She said she was going to be seeing a doctor in the next day to see whether or not she’d had a seizure.“
On Tuesday, a pair of prosecution witnesses gave evidence that seemed to bolster the defense’s contention that Kennedy took an Ambien pill instead of her thyroid medicine by mistake.
The prosecution’s toxicology expert, Elizabeth Spratt, said she didn’t know whether Kennedy would have realized she was driving erratically after taking the sleeping pill.
The prosecution has contended that Kennedy should have recognized that she was under the influence and pulled her silver Lexus over.
And a state police drug recognition expert who examined Kennedy after the accident testified that 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.
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 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.
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 also told the trooper that she had eaten some carrots and downed a cappuccino that morning and had slept about eight hours the night before.