Kerry Kennedy Says Ambien 'Overtook' Her, Causing Car Crash
77WABC Radio.com | 2/27/14
A jury was poised to begin deliberations after Kerry Kennedy told them how she accidentally took prescription sleeping pills that then "overtook" her, causing her to crash her car on a highway. Kennedy, 54, took the stand to testify in her own defense Wednesday in her drugged driving trial. She is accused of driving under the influence of zolpidem, a sleep medication better known as Ambien, and slamming her SUV into a truck on a New York highway in July 2013.One final witness, a forensic pharmacologist, is expected to be called by the defense on Thursday to testify to the effects of Ambien before final arguments are made and the case goes to the jury.Within minutes of taking the stand Kennedy invoked the name of her late father, Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy's famous lineage has been a focal point for the defense as they've tried to present her as an upstanding citizen with no drug or alcohol problems. The daughter of RFK and Ethel Kennedy, whom she was photographed pushing in a wheelchair into and out of court earlier in the week, is also a niece of President John F. Kennedy and was married to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "Daddy was the attorney general during the civil rights movement," Kerry Kennedy said after taking the stand, explaining to jurors why she grew up in Virginia. "I have 10 brothers and sisters. My mother raised us because my father died when I was 8," she said. Asked how he died, Kennedy said, "He was killed while running for president."