DWI arrest delays administration job

SANTA FE, N.M. - A former New Mexico Cabinet secretary arrested for drunken driving three days after being named to an Obama administration post will assume her federal job.

Prosecutors say that Cindy Padilla, 48, pleaded no contest to her first DWI offense in Santa Fe Municipal Court. She received a deferred sentence Nov. 19.

Padilla was secretary of New Mexico's Aging and Long-Term Services Department.

The charge resulted from an Oct. 24 traffic stop.

Three days earlier, Padilla had accepted the job of principal deputy assistant secretary at the Administration on Aging, in Washington, D.C. After her arrest, Padilla asked that her start date be postponed while she resolved the DWI. She is to start within weeks, a spokesman said.

- Associated Press