A high-ranking Newport News police official admitted to driving drunk on Interstate 64 in Hampton one night last summer.

But Dawn D. Barber, a former assistant police chief who was demoted to captain, is now actively appealing her conviction.

“Of course I regret it,” Barber said after being found guilty at a hearing in Hampton General District Court in November. “I take full responsibility.”

Her appeal under way in Hampton Circuit Court asserts that the case should be thrown out because a judge refused to accept a legal maneuver that would have allowed her to be sentenced on a lesser reckless driving offense instead of the DUI.

Barber’s attorney, Shawn W. Overbey, contends the judge was required under state law to accept the plea.

But the Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office — not backing down and contending the judge did nothing wrong — has now requested a jury trial in the case.

A hearing on Barber’s motion to dismiss the case is set for April 13, with a trial slated to begin May 26.

Hampton Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney John Haugh declined to comment on the case Tuesday.

Barber, 44, was pulled over about 9:40 p.m. on Aug. 16 after a Virginia State Police trooper said she was weaving in traffic and almost hit another car on I-64 near North King Street.

The trooper who pulled Barber over said she told him that she drank a ” Texas-size” margarita at a restaurant a half hour earlier. He said Barber performed poorly on sobriety tests, with a Breathalyzer test showing that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.12 percent. The legal limit in Virginia is 0.08.

Later, Newport News Police Chief James Fox demoted Barber one rank because of the incident. He also cut her pay to $83,500, down 4.7 percent from the previous salary of $87,675.

At the November court hearing in the case, Overbey sought to reduce Barber’s possible punishment.

Under state law, when someone is charged with both drunken driving and reckless driving as part of the same incident — as they usually are in DUI cases — the judge must dismiss one of the charges.

Judges typically throw out the reckless driving count, which carries a lighter punishment: a typical-six month driver’s license suspension, rather than 12 months for the DUI.

But Overbey sought to have Barber plead no contest to the reckless driving charge — with the DUI charge then automatically dismissed because only one of the charges could proceed. He cited a state law that says, in part: “The court shall not refuse to accept a plea of (no contest).”

General District Court Judge Albert W. Patrick III, however, refused to accept that plea, finding Barber guilty of DUI. He gave her the standard punishment for a first-time DUI offense: a 30-day suspended jail term, a one-year restricted driver’s license that allows her to drive for work, a $250 fine and a requirement to get alcohol counseling.

In Barber’s motion to dismiss, Overbey contends Patrick “ignored the mandate of the General Assembly.”

“The trial court erred, and it was not a harmless error, when it failed to accept (the no-contest plea for reckless driving) and proceed to sentencing,” Overbey wrote.

He contended that a jury trial on the DUI charge would constitute an illegal double jeopardy because Barber was previously convicted of the crime.