Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane arrested for DUI

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Update: March 17, 2022

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was formally charged Thursday with drunk and careless driving stemming from a car crash over the weekend in her hometown of Scranton.

According to the criminal complaint, when the officer arrived at the scene of the incident and approached Kane’s black 2021 Audi, he could smell a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.” The officer, Ryan Seprish of the Scranton Police Department, said Kane, who was chewing gum, denied that she had been drinking, and said she had come out to pick up her sister from “a local establishment.”

“It’s totally not me,” Seprish said Kane told him when he asked her if she had been drinking. She then pointed to her sister in the passenger seat. The sister is not identified in the report, but Kane has an identical twin sister who also worked at the state Attorney General’s office.

The driver of the car Kane hit told police that she had been spraying perfume on herself before officers arrived. According to the affidavit, Kane had trouble remembering if she brought her wallet and spoke with slurred speech.

Kane was administered a field sobriety test, and had trouble following the steps. She refused a blood alcohol test.

Original story

HARRISBURG — Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was arrested Saturday in her hometown of Scranton for driving under the influence of alcohol, police there said Monday.

Kane, 55, was released on “general impairment DUI charges” following a two-car crash, Scranton Police Chief Thomas Carroll said. Formal charges will be filed this week, he said.

There were no reported injuries from the crash, which Carroll said occurred around 6:30 p.m.

He would not say whether Kane was administered a blood-alcohol test, nor elaborate on how the arresting officer determined that she had consumed alcohol. He also would not say whether she was alone in the car when the incident occurred.

A woman who answered a cell phone for Kane on Monday hung up on a reporter.

Kane, the first Democrat and first woman to be elected attorney general, served as Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor from 2013 to 2016, when she resigned in the final year of a tumultuous first term after she was convicted of perjury, official oppression, and other crimes.

It was not immediately known Monday whether the pending charges will affect the status of Kane’s probation stemming from her earlier convictions.

Her conviction marked a stunning end to what had been a meteoric rise to power for Kane, a political newcomer whose name was mentioned for higher office.

But a year into her first term, her upward political trajectory was derailed after The Inquirer revealed that she had secretly shut down a sting investigation that caught Democratic legislators from Philadelphia pocketing cash from an undercover informant posing as a lobbyist.

Furious that the information had become public, Kane sought revenge against a former state prosecutor whom she blamed for the story. A jury found that she leaked secret investigative information in an attempt to punish the prosecutor, and then lied under oath about it to a grand jury. She was disbarred after her conviction.

Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in prison, but ended up serving less than the minimum — just over eight months — qualifying for an early release based on credit for good behavior.

Under the terms of her sentencing, Kane’s probation is for a five-year period following her July 2019 release from prison.

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