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Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane faces probation-violation hearing over DUI arrest

The state's former top prosecutor could be jailed again for violating her probation on a perjury conviction.

Former State Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves court in handcuffs after her 2016 sentencing perjury and other charges. Now, she is facing new legal issues related to a March arrest on charges of drunken driving.
Former State Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves court in handcuffs after her 2016 sentencing perjury and other charges. Now, she is facing new legal issues related to a March arrest on charges of drunken driving.Read moreDan Gleiter / AP
    by Craig R. McCoy
    Updated 
    Published 

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane will face a court hearing for violating her probation on a 2016 perjury conviction with her March arrest on DUI charges.

Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy, who presided over Kane’s trial, ordered the hearing, at which she could revoke Kane’s probation and send her back to jail, require her to undergo ordering alcohol treatment, or impose no penalty at all. No date has been set.

Kane, 55, the first Democrat and first woman to be elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, was convicted of lying about her role in an illegal plot to leak confidential material to embarrass a political enemy. She resigned her post and served eight months in the Montgomery County jail for the crimes of perjury, official oppression, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy.

Upon her release in 2019, she was put on five years of probation, in effect until 2024. Kane’s March 12 arrest in her hometown of Scranton for driving while under the influence triggered the probation-violation hearing in Norristown.

» READ MORE: Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane arrested for DUI

She is also scheduled to face a May 26 preliminary hearing on the DUI charge, a misdemeanor; and a citation for careless driving.

Kane was arrested after she crashed her Audi into another car. No one was hurt. The former top state prosecutor 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 that Kane sprayed perfume on herself before officers arrived.

“It’s totally not me,” police said Kane told them when asked her if she had been drinking. She then pointed to her sister in the passenger seat. The sister was not named in police documents, but Kane has an identical twin.