Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In July 1970, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (age 16) and his cousin Robert Shriver were arrested for marijuana possession in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Tried as juveniles, both received 13 months of probation.

In September 1983, RFK Jr. became ill aboard a Republic Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Rapid City, South Dakota. Authorities obtained a search warrant and found 0.2 grams of heroin in his luggage. He was charged with one felony count of heroin possession. On February 17, 1984, he pleaded guilty. On March 16, 1984, he received a suspended sentence and two years of probation (later reduced to one year), along with community service and mandatory drug-rehabilitation. He performed his community service as a volunteer for Riverkeeper, an environmental organization.

On September 17, 1983, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was charged with one felony count of heroin possession after authorities found 0.2 grams of heroin in his luggage at Rapid City Regional Airport, South Dakota, following an incident aboard a Republic Airlines flight. In February 1984, Kennedy pleaded guilty in Pennington County Court before Judge John Bastian. He was sentenced to two years of probation, 1,500 hours of community service, and mandatory drug treatment. He was not sentenced to prison. His probation reportedly ended early. There is no confirmed public record of formal expungement.

On April 28, 2001, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participated in a civil disobedience campaign on the Camp García Naval Installation on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, entering the facility without authorization to protest U.S. Navy live-fire exercises. He was among approximately 180 people arrested. On July 6, 2001, Chief U.S. District Judge Hector Lafitte convicted him of trespassing in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1382 and sentenced him to 30 days in federal prison. Kennedy served the full 30-day sentence. He appealed his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the conviction in 2002 (289 F.3d 16).

During his 2024 independent presidential campaign, RFK Jr. listed a rented room at 84 Croton Lake Road in Westchester County, NY as his place of residence on nominating petitions, paying $500/month to the homeowner but having spent only one night there. New York Supreme Court Judge Christina Ryba ruled after trial that this was a false statement under New York election law, finding the address was a 'sham' used to maintain his New York voter registration and ballot access. Kennedy's petition was invalidated and he was removed from the New York ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his emergency appeal on September 27, 2024. (Note: the finding was a civil election-law adjudication, not a criminal charge; no fine or jail sentence was imposed.)