NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio, AP) — Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who served jail time for leaking secret investigative files and lying about it, is on her way to a substance abuse treatment center in Chester County after admitting she violated her probation by getting arrested for DUI in March.
Kane conceded her arrest in Scranton on March 12 violated the terms of her probation, which she is serving after her conviction in 2016 on charges related to leaking grand jury material to embarrass a rival prosecutor and then lying about it under oath. She served eight months of a 10- to 23-month sentence before being released in 2019.
She appeared for a hearing in Montgomery County Court on Monday, before Judge Wendy Demchick Alloy, the same judge who sentenced her in the original leak case. Demchick Alloy told Kane she didn’t expect to see her back in her courtroom, adding this was Kane’s choice, not hers.
In a negotiated agreement, Kane is being paroled directly into a substance abuse treatment center.
The judge quoted from a county probation department report, noting that Kane immediately went into treatment following her arrest, acknowledging she needs help with addiction to alcohol, noting significant trauma that she needs to deal with.
“You heard what the judge read. I believe that to be true,” said her attorney, Marc Steinberg. “She’s been humbled by this experience and I believe she won’t be back here again.”
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While Kane admitted she violated her probation, she has yet to answer for the DUI charge. A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Scranton this week Thursday.
On March 12, police in Scranton were called to the scene of a two-car crash and said they found Kane behind the wheel of an Audi.
Kane told responding officers she was a designated driver, but surveillance video showed Kane herself had been drinking alcohol at a Scranton restaurant shortly before the crash, according to an affidavit.
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The former attorney general had watery, bloodshot eyes and slurred her words — police said she had trouble saying the word “designated” — and failed a field sobriety test, the documents said.
She was charged with drunken driving and careless driving. Four days later, a Montgomery County judge issued a bench warrant for her arrest on the alleged probation violation. Kane is on probation until October 2025.
Once a rising star in Pennsylvania politics, Kane is the first woman and first Democrat to be elected attorney general in the state. She resigned as attorney general after her 2016 conviction.
Kane, 55, has been jailed at Montgomery County Correctional Facility outside Philadelphia since April 29.