When exactly did Ambien replace Johnnie Walker as the drug of choice among the Kennedy clan?
(Newsday) — Kerry Kennedy had the powerful sleeping aid Ambien in her system the day she was found slumped over the steering wheel of her SUV on a Westchester road, sources told Newsday Wednesday after reviewing results of the official blood test.
Kennedy, 52, pleaded not guilty last week to the misdemeanor of driving while drugged, blaming her erratic behavior and sideswiping of a truck on July 13 on a “complex partial seizure.”
At the time, her spokesman Ken Sunshine said blood and urine tests analyzed privately “showed no drugs or alcohol whatsoever in her system.”
Sunshine’s office said he was not available for comment Wednesday. Kennedy’s new attorney, John Pappalardo, did not immediately return a call for comment.
After a July 17 court hearing in North Castle, Kennedy told reporters that she had no recollection of driving wildly on Interstate 684 at about 8 a.m., hitting a tractor-trailer and exiting the highway at Route 22, where a police officer found her slumped over the wheel of her 2008 Lexus.
“I remember getting on the highway and then I have no memory until I was stopped at a traffic light and a police officer was at my car door,” the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said outside the courthouse. “In my discussion with the police officer, I was confused and erratic.”