SCRANTON, Pa. — Former State Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been charged for driving under the influence.
Scranton’s police chief says the former top cop of Pennsylvania was involved in a minor crash in the city’s southside Saturday night. It happened at the intersection of Moosic Street and Meadow Avenue. Officers filed charges Thursday. She's been charged with driving under the influence and careless driving.
According to court papers, Kane was behind the wheel of a 2021 Audi that collided with another car as it was turning onto Meadow Avenue from Moosic Street.
When police arrived, Kane told them she was the designated driver and was picking up her sister. Kane denied that she had been drinking. However, officers smelled alcohol coming from her car. The driver of the other vehicle told officers she saw Kane spray herself with perfume right after the crash.
Kane agreed to a field sobriety test, and officers say they saw enough evidence to book her for suspicion of DUI.
In 2012 Kathleen Kane was on top of Pennsylvania's political world.
In her first-ever run for office, the newcomer from West Scranton came out of nowhere to become the first woman and the first Democrat ever elected as the Keystone State's attorney general.
"I'm really proud of the people of our state who came out to vote and believe we can have a better government and qualified leaders," Kane said.
Her first term in Harrisburg started off strongly.
She uncovered a chain of offensive, sometimes pornographic emails that had been circulating among the highest echelons of state government.
Several top state officials were forced to resign.
Political pundits predicted Kathleen Kane would soon run for even higher office.
Governor, senator, all seemed within reach.
But Kane's political career quickly nosedived.
First, she's accused of leaking secret details from a Grand Jury investigation.
Then, she's charged with perjury for lying about it under oath.
In the summer of 2016, when she should have been running for re-election, she instead resigned from the Attorney General's office after being convicted by a jury in suburban Philadelphia.
While she appealed, she sat down for one last interview with Newswatch 16.
"I realize now more than ever that politics is a disease in this commonwealth, and it needs to be cut out," Kane said.
Her appeals were denied.
Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane reported to the Montgomery County jail in late November of 2018.
Four months into her incarceration, the Pennsylvania Bar Association stripped her of her law license.
She served about eight months before being released on good behavior in August of 2019.