Former state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane appealed the suspension of her driver’s license for refusing to submit to a blood alcohol test after she was involved in a suspected drunken driving crash.
Kane, 56, was charged with one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence: general impairment and a summary count of careless driving after police said she crashed her car into another vehicle at Moosic Street and Meadow Avenue in Scranton on March 12.
Police say Kane showed signs of impairment and smelled of alcohol. She refused to take a test to determine her blood alcohol content, which triggers an automatic one-year license suspension.
Kane served as attorney general from 2013 to August 2016, when she was convicted in Montgomery County Court of obstructing the administration of law, official oppression and conspiracy for leaking information about a 2009 grand jury probe of a Philadelphia man to a newspaper and lying to the grand jury that investigated the leak.
Kane admitted last month that the DUI arrest violated her probation, and a judge sentenced her to two months to a year of jail. However, she was given credit for time already served and was scheduled to be paroled directly to a residential treatment center for alcohol use.
In the license appeal, Kane alleges she was not given an adequate opportunity to submit to the test and was not adequately advised of the consequences if she refused.
Lackawanna County Judge Andy Jarbola directed the state reply to the petition by June 30. A hearing, if necessary, will be held July 20. She faces a preliminary hearing on the drunken driving charge on Aug. 4.