Kane was taken into jail just before 8 a.m. to begin a 10- to 23-month term for perjury, obstruction and other counts.
“I spoke to her this morning and I think she handled it with fortitude and dignity,” said her defense attorney, William J. Brennan. “It’s been a long, unpleasant process for Kathleen and many other people. She’s now serving her sentence. Ten months goes by quickly and she will come out, I predict, and lead a very productive, hopefully long life. This is not the end of Kathleen Kane.”
Kane’s rise and fall should serve as a hard lesson for elected officials. Veteran politicians and those newly elected this past November and taking office in January should learn from Kane’s political fate.
Kane went from being a little-known prosecutor from Lackawanna County to getting elected as the first woman and first Democrat to become Pennsylvania’s attorney general.
The 52-year-old Scranton native quickly became a rising star and was talked about for higher office.
That is now over.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, whose office prosecuted Kane, said Kane’s incarceration “closes this unfortunate chapter for the people of Pennsylvania.”
“As the jail door shuts her in, a strong message is being sent that no one is above the law. No one. Not even the chief law enforcement officer of the commonwealth,” Steele said in a statement.
A county judge appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Kane after former prosecutors with the attorney general’s office alerted him that secret grand jury material had been leaked to a newspaper.
She resigned following her 2016 conviction, but was allowed to remain out on $75,000 bail pending appeals.
The state Supreme Court on Nov. 26 declined to take up her case, leading a county judge to revoke her bail.
Her once promising political career has now landed her in jail.
When she was sentenced, Kane had argued that the loss of her career, law license and reputation was punishment enough. She had asked the judge to sentence her to probation or house arrest so she could be home to raise her two sons.
“I really don’t care what happens to me,” Kane said. “There is no more torture in the world than to watch your children suffer and know you had something to do with it.”
Some say ego drove Kane to take down enemies and break the law. Others say her enemies took her down as an act of revenge for bucking the political establishment.
What is clear is that Kane broke the law and will now pay for her crimes.
https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/kane-broke-law-has-to-pay-for-it/article_5ca8fb0f-7b27-58ff-b7c9-d4ba958e3716.html
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