Kerry Kennedy found not guilty.

[pnwmom]

Yes, being a Kennedy probably helped her. At least she had the means to fight this.

But the only thing they found in her system was the Ambien. And the only dispute seems to be whether she should have realized, while under the influence, that she was under the influence. A defense expert, a developer of the drug, argued that she would not have been able to.

http://bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2014/02/kerry_kennedy_acquitted_of_drugged_driving_in_ny

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Kerry Kennedy was acquitted Friday of drugged driving after she accidentally took a sleeping pill and then sideswiped a truck in a wild highway drive she said she didn't remember.

Kennedy hugged and clasped hands with her lawyers as a six-person jury cleared her of driving while impaired, a misdemeanor. It had carried the potential for up to a year in jail, though that would be unlikely for a first-time offender.

SNIP

Prosecutors and Kennedy's defense lawyers agreed the 54-year-old took the sleeping drug zolpidem unintentionally, mistaking it for her daily thyroid medication, before heading off to her suburban New York gym on July 13, 2012. The trial centered on whether or not she realized she was impaired and should have stopped.

Despite the pill mix-up, "she is responsible for the chain of events that happened after that," prosecutor Doreen Lloyd said in her summation. She argued that Kennedy shrugged off the symptoms because she was busy.

SNIP

[11 Bravo]

1. I don't know how much "being a Kennedy" helped. I've heard it said that ...

if her name was not Kennedy the case probably wouldn't have gone to trial.

[pnwmom]

2. I guess I can see it either way. Though usually cases don't go to trial

because the defendants decide not to fight it.

[FLyellowdog]

3. My friend actually did the same thing.

Her blood pressure meds look very similar to her Ambian and she took the wrong one before driving to work. When she started weaving down the road, someone called the highway patrol and she was stopped, EMT was called and they checked her out. She realized what had happened and they believed her so her husband came and picked her up. Lucky she didn't cause an accident. It happens.