Sara Kenney pleads guilty to DWAI, faces prison

Sara O’Connor Kenney, 37, of Voorheeville, who also goes by the name Sara Neff, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning in Albany County Court before Judge Peter Lynch to driving while ability impaired by drugs and violation of probation, both felonies, for a Sept. 19 incident, according to a release from the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

Kenney, a disbarred attorney who worked at the state comptroller’s office, was on probation when stopped by state troopers on Interstate 90 on Sept. 19 for erratic driving and found to be “highly impaired by prescription medication,” according to the release.

Jennifer Freeman, communications director of the state comptroller’s office, said that Kenney resigned last week and no longer works for the office.

She was on probation at the time of her arrest, after pleading guilty in May to aggravated driving while intoxicated with her young son in the vehicle, an automatic felony under Leandra’s Law. The law 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’s earlier charges stemmed from an incident from March 2017. She was disbarred as a result of that guilty plea.

In May, Lynch had sentenced Kenney to five years’ probation and a $1,000 fine on the earlier charge. He also revoked her 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.

Now Kenney faces one-and-one-third to four years in state prison on the new arrest and a concurrent one year in Albany County’s jail on the probation-violation charge, when sentenced on Jan. 3, 2019 by Lynch. Kenney will also be subject to a minimum one-year license revocation, to be determined by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, and a $1,000 fine.

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.

More Guilderland News

  • The Guilderland Zoning Board at its Feb. 4 meeting was presented with a proposal from Robert Abbatiello to build 18 units of housing for people 55 and older at 3400 Carman Road.

  • Before highlighting Guilderland’s update of its comprehensive plan and improvements in safety and parks, Barber, in his annual State of the Town address on Tuesday, referenced the town’s support of economic diversity, gender diversity, and cultural and ethnic diversity.

  • The board’s unanimous Feb. 4 vote overturned a building permit issued for a fence running along a shared driveway between the historic Norman Vale home and the property at 3 Norman Vale Lane, reasoning that the fence would obstruct a historic view of Norman Vale and because the property owner could not articulate a reason for erecting the barrier. 

The Altamont Enterprise is focused on hyper-local, high-quality journalism. We produce free election guides, curate readers' opinion pieces, and engage with important local issues. Subscriptions open full access to our work and make it possible.