MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — An airman with the 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron was reduced in rank by one grade and fined $925 after pleading guilty in a summary court-martial here last week to driving while intoxicated on April 6.

Airman Christopher B. Smith also was found not guilty of assaulting a noncommissioned officer.

At Misawa, a DWI typically is dealt with by an Article 15, or nonjudicial punishment, but Smith’s case was elevated to a summary court-martial because of the assault charge, said Capt. Jason Spence, 35th Fighter Wing assistant staff judge advocate and the government’s attorney in the proceedings.

Smith’s blood-alcohol content in connection to the DWI was 0.198, more than five times the legal limit of 0.03 in Japan.

It’s base policy that anyone found to be driving with a BAC over 0.15 has his or her driver’s license revoked for two years. However, Spence said he did not know what, if anything, might happen to Smith’s driving privileges. That decision, the prosecutor said, “is up to the commander.”

Presiding over the court was Lt. Col. James Eilers, deputy commander, 35th Mission Support Group. He found Smith not guilty of punching Staff Sgt. Arthur Hose in the smoking pit outside the Tohoku Enlisted Club on March 26. Smith claimed that he was breaking up an altercation between the sergeant and another airman, Spence said.

Capt. Aaron Lake, area defense counsel at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, represented Smith.