Ms Kennedy is the ex-wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left
Kerry Kennedy, the former wife of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was arrested and charged with driving while impaired by drugs on Friday morning after she collided with a tractor-trailer in Westchester County and left the accident scene, the State Police said.
Ms. Kennedy, through a spokesman, denied the charge.
“Kerry Kennedy voluntarily took Breathalyzer, blood and urine tests — all of which showed no drugs or alcohol whatsoever in her system,” the spokesman, Ken Sunshine, said. “The charges were filed before the test results were available.”
Maj. Michael Kopy, the commander of the State Police troop that handled the arrest, declined to comment on the spokesman’s remarks or go into detail about the drug-testing procedure.
According to the police report, Ms. Kennedy, 52, was southbound on Interstate 684 in the town of North Castle when her 2008 Lexus hit the truck at around 8 a.m. She kept driving and left the highway, despite the damage to her vehicle, including a flat tire, according to the report.
The police were alerted by a series of 911 calls reporting a car operating in an erratic manner. Those calls led them to Ms. Kennedy’s Lexus, which the police said was disabled on State Route 22, one exit from the site of the accident.
Ms. Kennedy was seated behind the wheel.
Ms. Kennedy, who lives nearby in Bedford, N.Y., and is president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, was not injured, according to a person close to Ms. Kennedy who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
Her arrest came two months after the suicide of her sister-in-law Mary R. Kennedy.
Despite the fact that Mary was estranged from her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is Kerry’s brother, Mary and Kerry Kennedy remained close. They met when Kerry was 15 and, after Mary’s death, she mourned the woman she called her “very, very best friend.”
At a memorial service held in Bedford, she read an emotional statement to the press.
“Mary suffered from depression, and it’s a disease that so many, many, many Americans suffer from,” she said. “I just think about the story of Michael, the archangel, who had to battle the forces of evil, had to battle Satan who was trying to enter paradise. And that’s what Mary did her whole life.”
Mary Kennedy, who hanged herself in a barn behind her home in Bedford on May 16, had at least three types of antidepressants in her system at the time she died, according to the autopsy report. Her death was the latest tragedy to strike a family that has known political success at the highest levels as well as heartbreak and scandal.
Kerry Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was killed by an assassin in 1968. She is one of 11 children.
Two of her siblings died young. David Anthony Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984 at age 28 and Michael LeMoyne Kennedy died in a skiing accident in 1997 at age 39.
Kerry Kennedy wed Mr. Cuomo in 1990. Their marriage ended acrimoniously; the two separated in 2003 and were divorced in 2005.
More recently, however, Ms. Kennedy has spoken positively about his tenure as governor, and the two share custody of their three daughters.
A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to comment.
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