Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane Arrested for DUI

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D) was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) after crashing her car in Scranton around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday evening.

City police reported Monday that no injuries resulted from the two-car collision at the intersection of Moosic Street and Meadow Avenue and that Kane will incur official charges this week. 

Police have not yet said whether the former top state prosecutor took a blood alcohol test or, if so, what level of intoxication it indicated. They also have not noted whether her vehicle had any passengers.

The arrest is the newest of ongoing legal problems for the 55-year-old Scranton-born Democrat, who was Pennsylvania’s attorney general from 2013 to 2016. After serving three and a half years of her four-year term as the first woman and first Democrat ever elected to the office, she would resign and face eight months imprisonment for perjury, obstruction of justice and related convictions.

The ex-prosecutor’s troubles began in 2014 after deputy attorneys general complained that Kane had leaked confidential memoranda to the press concerning a 2009 grand jury investigation into the former Philadelphia leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It was alleged that Kane committed the breach to impugn two former state prosecutors who exposed her failure to pursue an investigation into several Democratic state legislators from Philadelphia for bribery and related crimes. 

The state Supreme Court would soon appoint a special counsel, whose probe into the matter would result in a trial during which Kane lied about about the leak. She was convicted on August 15, 2016.

In March 2019, four months into Kane’s stint in jail, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prohibited her from practicing law in commonwealth forums and, that July, the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania would federally disbar her. That month, Kane would be released from prison and begin a five-year probation term. A major question surrounding her upcoming DUI charges is whether they will affect her probationary status.

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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kathleen Kane” by Penn Live.