Former Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane was jailed again to await a hearing on a DUI arrest
Kane previously served eight months behind bars for her attacks on a rival.
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was jailed Friday for violating her probation on a perjury conviction with her arrest last month on a DUI charge.
Kane, 55, turned herself in Friday morning after Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy issued a warrant for her arrest. The judge had previously sentenced Kane to prison after presiding over the 2016 perjury case that cut short Kane’s meteoric political career.
Kane will stay behind bars until a hearing on the probation violation, unless her lawyer can win an earlier release. No date has been set for the hearing, at which the judge could revoke Kane’s probation and keep her in jail, order her to get alcohol treatment, or impose no further penalty.
The state’s former top prosecutor was released on five years’ probation in the summer of 2019 after serving eight months for the perjury conviction at the Montgomery County jail in Eagleville, where she is now being held again.
The first Democrat and first woman to be elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, Kane was convicted in 2016 of lying about her role in an illegal plot to leak confidential material to embarrass a political enemy. In addition to perjury, she was convicted of official oppression, obstructing justice, and conspiracy. She resigned in the last year of her four-year term.
Her March 12 arrest in Scranton, near her hometown of Clarks Summit, for driving while under the influence triggered the upcoming probation-violation hearing in Norristown.
Kane was arrested after she crashed her Audi into another car. No one was hurt. She refused to take a blood-alcohol test, but the arresting officer said she had slurred speech, smelled of alcohol, and swayed when asked to stand on one foot. The driver of the car Kane hit told police Kane applied perfume before officers arrived. Authorities said Kane told police her identical twin had been driving the car.
She is scheduled to face a May 26 preliminary hearing in Scranton on the DUI charge, a misdemeanor; and a citation for careless driving.