2-star fined in Vegas DUI case - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

2-star fined in Vegas DUI case

A two-star general who received a top assignment at Air Force Materiel Command six weeks after being arrested on drunken driving charges will pay a fine and spend no additional time in jail.

Maj. Gen. David W. Eidsaune pleaded no contest — in which the defendant neither admits nor denies guilt — during an appearance in municipal court May 13 in Henderson, Nev., a Las Vegas suburb. The judge ordered Eidsaune to pay $577, attend driving school, attend a victim-impact panel and undergo a chemical dependence assessment. The general also received a sentence of 60 days; all but two of the days were suspended, and he received time-served credit for those two days.

If he fulfills the terms of his sentence, the drunken driving charge will be reduced to reckless driving, assistant city attorney Dave Mincavage said.

Eidsaune — then AFMC’s director of air, space and information operations based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio — was pulled over shortly before midnight Feb. 9. A Henderson police officer arrested him after observing Eidsaune driving a black Kia erratically and traveling 35 mph in a 45 mph zone, according to the arrest report. Two breath samples registered at 0.181 percent and 0.174 percent. The legal limit in Nevada is 0.08 percent.

AFMC announced March 19 that Eidsaune would take over as director of strategic plans, programs and analyses, and of Develop and Sustain Warfighting Systems at Wright-Patterson.

Eidsaune will not face a court-martial, and his plea apparently did not affect his standing at AFMC.

“[AFMC commander Gen. Donald Hoffman] took the appropriate action at the time,” an AFMC spokeswoman said. She would not elaborate on what action was taken.