Sara O’Connor Kenney, of Voorheesville — a state comptroller’s office staffer and former attorney who was recently disbarred for driving drunk with a child in the car — was arrested by the New York State Police on Sept. 19, charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs.

There were no children in the car when Kenney, who also goes by the last name of Neff, was pulled over on Sept. 19, according to spokeswoman Kerra Burns of Troop G of the New York State Police, who outlined the events this way:

Troopers responded to a report of an erratic driver heading west on Interstate 90 near Exit 5 at about 6 p.m. They then located a BMW X-5 in the area that matched the description and that had been involved in a minor rear-end collision. Kenney showed signs of impairment, failed field sobriety tests, and tested negative for the presence of alcohol.

“This is why patrols suspected that drugs may be involved,” Burns said.

The charge rises to the level of a felony, said Cecilia Walsh, spokeswoman for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, because Kenney, who was charged under the name Sara Neff, had previously pleaded guilty to felony-level driving while intoxicated under the Leandra’s Law statute.

Kenney, 39, who lives at 37 Fairway Ct. in Voorheesville, pleaded guilty in May to aggravated driving while intoxicated with her young son as a passenger, an automatic felony under Leandra’s Law, which is named for Leandra Rosado, an 11-year-old killed in 2009 in a crash in which the driver was the intoxicated mother of one of her friends.

Kenney was arraigned on the DWAI charge on Sept. 20 in Albany City Court before Judge Holly Trexler and pleaded not guilty, according to Walsh, who added that bail was set at $20,000 and was posted that day. Kenney is represented by defense attorney Thomas O’Hern, and the matter is under review by the Vehicular Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office, Walsh said.

Kenney’s earlier charge dates from March 2017. Her guilty plea came more than a year later, in May, when Albany County Court Judge Peter Lynch sentenced her to five years’ probation and a $1,000 fine.

Lynch also revoked Kenney’s driver’s license for one year and ordered her to attend a victims’ impact panel and an impaired-driver program and to use an ignition interlock device for five years.

Sara Kenney began working as a staff attorney for the New York State Comptroller’s Office in September 2009, and in May she moved to a new, lower-paid, non-legal position, office spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman told The Enterprise earlier.

Freeman told The Enterprise this week, “There is no change in her employment status at this time.”

In the DWI arrest more than a year ago, Guilderland Police had received a 9-1-1 call from an employee of the McDonald’s on Route 20 and Church Road in Guilderland, stating that a woman who was possibly intoxicated and who had been seen drinking alcohol inside the restaurant was getting into a vehicle with a child. The worker gave police a description, direction of travel, and license-plate number.

In that earlier arrest, Walsh told The Enterprise this week, police officers saw a vehicle matching the description driving erratically, nearly hitting multiple utility poles; police then attempted to pull the vehicle over.

Walsh said that Kenney displayed signs of intoxication and admitted to having drunk alcohol at a gymnastics event and told police she had brought her own alcohol to the event. She refused a breath analysis test and further chemical testing at the police station and, during her arrest, “was reportedly belligerent with officers and possessed an open container of liquor in her purse, according to Walsh.  

Kenney is the daughter of Mary Donohue, who was a two-term lieutenant governor of New York, elected, with Governor George Pataki, in 1998 and re-elected in 2002.