One of Santa Fe's top chefs pleaded guilty this week to drunken driving and was placed on unsupervised probation for a year, court records show.

Mark Kiffin, 48, who owns The Compound restaurant on Canyon Road — where the online wine list says "wine is integral to the cuisine" — isn't allowed to consume alcoholic beverages while on probation.

He also will have to install an ignition-interlock device on his car within 15 days and keep it for a year, attend DWI school, undergo an alcohol screening and, if necessary, receive treatment.

"He got everything everyone else gets on a first DWI," said Kiffin's attorney, Dan Marlowe. "He wasn't treated any differently than anyone else."

Kiffin initially was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated and careless driving after a one-car accident on June 28 southeast of the city. A Santa Fe County sheriff's deputy found Kiffin lying face-down near his wrecked sport-utility vehicle alongside Interstate 25. Kiffin, who smelled of alcohol, later refused to allow a sample of his blood to be drawn at the hospital for testing, and his refusal resulted in the aggravated charge, according to court documents.

However, Kiffin appeared in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court on Tuesday and, under the terms of a plea agreement offered by the District Attorney's Office, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving while intoxicated, documents state. The aggravated charge and the careless driving charge were dismissed.

Under the plea deal, Kiffin received a 90-day suspended jail sentence — he was never taken to jail after the accident because he was injured and was admitted into the hospital — and no fine, according to court documents.

In addition to being barred from consuming alcoholic beverages while on probation, he cannot enter establishments that serve alcohol, except restaurants, the document says. Finally, Kiffin will have to perform 24 hours of community service at the Las Campanas Senior Center by Sept. 10, according to court documents.

Kiffin did not return a phone message seeking comment.

When the sheriff's deputy arrived around 4 a.m. at the scene on I-25 about two miles south of the Eldorado exit, he found Kiffin's heavily damaged 1998 Land Rover about 50 feet off the road. The vehicle had rolled after striking the end of a guardrail and destroying 45 feet of it. Kiffin was lying on the ground in a "semi-conscious state," according to a police report.

After he was taken to the hospital, he repeatedly refused to allow his blood to be drawn, the report says, and insisted he wasn't drunk and hadn't done anything wrong. He admitted to drinking a glass of wine prior to the accident, the report states.

Marlowe insisted his client was charged with aggravated DWI because of the accident, though court documents make clear he was hit with the charge because he refused the blood test. Marlowe also said Kiffin never refused to take the blood test, though the police report states he was asked seven times if he'd consent to a blood test.

"How about the fact that he accepted responsibility without blood or breath?" Marlowe said.

A spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Division said Thursday that administrative action regarding Kiffin's driver's license is still pending.

Kiffin renovated and reopened The Compound in 2000 after he had spent several years working with Santa Fe restaurateur Mark Miller, who opened The Coyote Cafe, among other eateries. Kiffin was named the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef in the Southwest in 2005.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.