A Carnegie Mellon University professor charged with drunken driving three times in eight days has checked into an alcohol rehab center in Virginia.

Jeffrey Hunker, 51, former dean of the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, will spend 28 days in treatment at Mt. Regis Center in Salem, Va., after flying there on Wednesday.

Because of that treatment, an Allegheny County judge yesterday elected not to put him in jail pending trial.

The district attorney's office had sought to revoke Mr. Hunker's bond in connection with an Aug. 17 drunken-driving charge in Squirrel Hill in which police said he backed out of his driveway, drove through a neighbor's yard, knocked over a tree, hit a car and then smashed into another neighbor's house.

He was arrested twice more on DUI charges after that, and he has a previous DUI from a 2004 crash that he had cleared from his record.

Assistant District Attorney Bob Linsenmayer said that Mr. Hunker, who has been in rehab for alcoholism at least twice before at centers in Oregon and Pennsylvania, is a danger to himself and the community.

"We know he's a drunk," he said. "We know that he drinks and gets behind the wheel of a car."

But he agreed with Judge Anthony Mariani that the alcohol treatment program would keep him off the road until he returns to Pittsburgh, at which time the judge said he must provide documentation to pre-trial services that he's completed the treatment and submit to weekly urine screenings to test for alcohol.

The judge also ordered that Mr. Hunker not drink or drive.

Mr. Hunker's lawyer, James Cirilano, said he will ask that a preliminary hearing in city court set for Sept. 9 be postponed until Mr. Hunker returns.

Mr. Hunker came to Pittsburgh in 2001 from the Clinton administration, where he served as head of cyber-security.

Neighbors on Squirrel Hill Avenue, including one who attended yesterday's hearing and others who are prepared to testify, said they have seen Mr. Hunker stumbling around drunk numerous times on his property and in the streets. CMU police said they have found him drunk on campus, although he has never been charged.

His first brush with the law came on Dec. 30, 2004, when he struck another car in Squirrel Hill while driving drunk.

He completed the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time offenders and had his record expunged. But police and the district attorney's office keep track of expunged cases. If a suspect gets another DUI within 10 years, the original can be used against him in court.

Mr. Cirilano said Mr. Hunker's three DUIs this month probably will be rolled into one and count as his second offense.

After police arrested him on Aug. 17, officers arrested him again the next day and again on Sunday after receiving a call that he was suicidal.

Following that incident, he was released to the custody of Mike Vargo, a local writer and friend who is writing a book with Mr. Hunker.