Richard Harbus/for New York Daily news
Kerry Kennedy had faced a possible year-long jail sentence.
The zombie walked.
Kerry Kennedy, the 54-year-old daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, was found not guilty Friday of drugged-driving by a Westchester County jury.
“I’m just very grateful this is done,” a smiling Kennedy said after she hugged defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt.
Kennedy said she plans to “celebrate” and said her brush with the law shows the need “to take a hard look at the criminal justice system.”
During the week long trial, Kerry was forced to revisit the embarrassing episode which she claimed happened after she mistakenly took Ambien, a sleeping aid that an expert said can result in “zombiism” and “sleep driving.”
Asked if she had any hard feelings against prosecutor Doreen Lloyd, who made some snarky remarks about her during closing arguments, Kennedy answered, “I’m not angry about anything right now.”
But Lefcourt wasn’t ready to let it go.
“The prosecution was appalling,” he said. “This case should never have been brought.”
His colleague, William Aronwald, said prosecutors admitted to him that they couldn’t drop the case because “it would give the impression of special treatment” for a Kennedy.
Richard Harbus/for New York daily news
Kennedy takes her 85-year-old mother Ethel out of the courthouse.
“They were the ones who treated this case differently,” he said, adding that Kennedy would not have been prosecuted if her name was “Mary Housewife.”
The Westchester County District Attorney’s office insisted it didn’t go after Kennedy because she is a Kennedy.
“We prosecute 2,500 impaired driving cases annually in Westchester County,” their statement read. “This case was treated no differently from any of the others. The jury heard all the evidence in this case and we respect their verdict.”
There was no immediate comment from Lloyd. But on Thursday she drew gasps in the courtroom — and glares from Kennedy — when she told the jury to “speak truth to power and convict Kerry Kennedy of the crime she committed.”
RELATED: KERRY KENNEDY'S DRUGGED-DRIVING CASE NOW IN THE HANDS OF SIX-MEMBER JURY
Kennedy wrote a book in 2000 called “Speak Truth To Power” that profiled dozens of human rights workers.
Her 85-year-old mother, Ethel Kennedy, also was not in the mood to let anything go, although her beef was with a fact-challenged tabloid that declared her dead Thursday with a front page headline that read “PITY ME, I’M AN ORPHAN.”
When a reporter from that newspaper asked Ethel Kennedy for a comment, the still-outraged octogenarian replied, “No!”
The four men and two women on the panel spent less than an hour over two days deliberating a charge that could have sent Kennedy to jail for up to a year.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
A jail sentence would have put the 54-year-old's work as a human rights activist in jeopardy.
While it was unlikely Kennedy would have done any time because she doesn’t have any prior arrests, she took her chances with a jury rather than agree to a plea because she feared a police record would have imperiled her work abroad as a human rights activist.
Kennedy, who is the ex-wife of Gov. Cuomo, was arrested in July 2012 after she swerved her Lexus SUV into a tractor-trailer on Interstate 684.
Charged with driving while impaired, Kennedy said she had no memory of the five mile hellride and said she must have suffered a seizure.
Blood tests, however, revealed Kennedy had Ambien in her system.
At trial, Kennedy said the accident happened because she mistakenly took the sleeping aid instead of her thyroid medication.
Team Kennedy produced pharmacalogist David Benjamin who said Ambien can cause a zombie-like reaction in some people. They also showed the jury the two medicine bottles, which were identical.
Lloyd scoffed at Kennedy’s defense and said a long time Ambien user like her should have known better.
The jury decided otherwise — and quickly.
— With Erik Badia
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