Joe Biden’s niece Caroline, 33, gets 20 days in rehab instead of ‘six months in jail’ under plea deal cut with DA for DUI after she crashed into a tree in Pennsylvania
- Caroline Biden, 33, crashed her car into a tree in Pennsylvania in August 2019
- On November 4, 2020 – the day after the election – she was arraigned
- On December 3 she was sentenced to 20 days to six months of ‘confinement’
- She will not face prison time though, and instead has committed to rehab
- In 2017 she admitted in New York to spending $110,000 on a stolen credit card
- In 2013 she was accused of assaulting a NYPD officer who broke up a fight
Joe Biden‘s niece Caroline Biden has escaped a prison sentence for DUI after a court in Pennsylvania accepted her guilty plea.
Biden, 33, was sentenced to between 20 days and six months of ‘confinement’ following the December 3 hearing.
However, a deal she cut with the Montgomery County district attorney means that she will avoid jail, and instead serve 20 days of rehab followed by five months of probation.
Caroline Biden is pictured in court in New York in January 2018. She also faced DUI charges
Joe Biden and brother James, the father of Caroline. She has had multiple run-ins with the law
The New York Post reported in July that at least eight other incidents involving members of the Biden family had seen the family avoid jail term.
‘She will be on probation,’ said Kate Delano, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County DA.
‘Should she then violate or break the law at any time, then she will be on the hook for the rest of the sentence.’
She was also ordered to pay $1,990 in fines and legal costs and ‘participate in a public or nonprofit community service program for 12 hours.’
Her license was also suspended for a year and she will be compelled to participate in a drug and alcohol awareness program, Delano said.
Biden, the daughter of Joe’s brother James, was caught in August 2019 in Lower Merion Township after crashing her car into a tree. Jeffrey Seamans, the officer who arrested her, noted that she ‘had difficulty focusing on the conversation’ as he questioned her.
She was also driving without a license.
Caroline Biden, 33, has faced numerous legal battles but has always avoided jail time
Her car contained pill bottles for the muscle relaxant and pain treatment carisoprodol, and lorazepam, which is commonly used to relieve anxiety. Both of them are controlled substances.
A blood test later confirmed those and other drugs were in her system at the time of the crash.
Biden’s arraignment was held on November 4 – one day after the presidential election.
A court spokesperson insisted the date was auto-generated and its post-election timing coincidental.
Mike Gottlieb, a Norristown, Pennsylvania, attorney with experience in DUI cases, told The New York Post the ruling was fair for a first offense.
‘It is not an unusual sentence to get credit for the time in the rehab. So truthfully, I don’t think she was treated any differently than any of my clients would have been,’ he told The Post.
It is not Biden’s first run-in with the law.
Caroline Biden is pictured in court in New York in July 2018, on charges of using a stolen card
In New York she was charged with spending more than $110,000 on a stolen credit card, and accused of assaulting an NYPD officer.
She admitted in court in 2017 to using an unidentified victim’s credit card at C.O. Bigelow Apothecary in the West Village of Manhattan between April 2015 and June 2016.
In June 2017 she agreed to pay it off, and to do community service.
Biden was also arrested in 2013 during a scuffle with her roommate, for attacking an officer who responded to their apartment.
The officer was unharmed and Biden again avoided jail.