Nolo contendere is a type of legal plea used in some jurisdictions in the United States. It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. It is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of guilty or not guilty. A no-contest plea means that defendants refuse to admit guilt but accept punishment as if guilty, and is often offered as a part of a plea bargain.
In law, a plea is a defendant's response to a criminal charge. A defendant may plead guilty or not guilty. Depending on jurisdiction, additional pleas may be available, including nolo contendere, no case to answer, or an Alford plea.
Ocala is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making it the 43rd-most populated city in Florida. Ocala is the principal city of the Ocala metropolitan area, which had a population of 375,908 in 2020.
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder: when someone is killed in the commission of a dangerous or enumerated crime, the offender, and also the offender's accomplices or co-conspirators, may be found guilty of murder.
The team eventing event, part of the equestrian program at the 2004 Summer Olympics, was held from the 15–18 August 2004. For the first time since 1992, the team and individual contests ran concurrently. The team event used the results of the first three phases of the individual eventing program to award rankings. A fourth phase was included in the individual competition for the first time. The competition was held at the Olympic Equestrian Centre on the outskirts of Markopoulo, in the Attica region of Greece. Like all other equestrian events, the eventing competition was mixed gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. 14 teams, each consisting of between three and five horse and rider pairs, entered the contest.
David John O'Connor is a retired equestrian who represented the United States in the sport of three-day eventing. He competed in two Olympic Games, winning a team silver at the 1996 Summer Olympics and an individual gold and team bronze at the 2000 Summer Olympics. At the 1999 Pan American Games, O'Connor took an individual silver and team gold and at the 2002 World Equestrian Games he assisted the US team to gold. After his retirement from competition in 2004, he became involved in the administrative side of international eventing. O'Connor has held top coaching roles for the US and Canadian national eventing teams, and was president of the United States Equestrian Federation from 2004 to 2012. During his career, O'Connor and his horses were awarded many honors, including equestrian and horse of the year awards from several organizations. In 2009, he was inducted to the United States Eventing Association's Hall of Fame, and two of his horses have been granted the same honor. O'Connor is married to fellow international event rider Karen O'Connor, and the pair operate two equestrian training facilities in the eastern United States.
Karen Lende O'Connor is an American equestrian who competes in three-day eventing. Although she did not come from a family of equestrians, her interest in horses started at an early age, and she received her first horse for her 11th birthday. O'Connor began competing internationally in the late 1970s, and in 1986 began riding for the US national eventing team. Since then, she had ridden in five Olympic Games, three World Equestrian Games and two Pan-American Games, winning multiple medals, including a team silver at the 1996 Olympic Games and a team bronze at the 2000 Olympic Games. She has also posted numerous wins and top-10 finishes at other international events. As of 2013, O'Connor is not competing, having suffered fractures to two thoracic vertebrae during a fall at a competition in October 2012.
The Red Hills Horse Trials is held in Tallahassee, in the U.S. state of Florida and is one of the equestrian world's top events. It is an annual major eventing competition held by the United States Eventing Association, Area III and the 16th event held in Area III consisting of Dressage, Cross-country, and Show jumping.
Windfall II is a Trakehner stallion that has competed internationally in the equestrian sport of eventing.
The show jumping horse killings scandal refers to an unverified number of insurance fraud cases in the United States between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s in which expensive horses, many of them show jumpers, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money. Many of the killings involved racketeering, and numerous perpetrators were convicted of crimes.
Eric Lamaze is a Canadian showjumper and Olympic champion. He won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, riding Hickstead. Lamaze has won three Olympic medals, as well as four Pan American Games medals and one World Equestrian Games bronze. He is considered one of Canada's best showjumpers. He is currently banned from participating in equestrian activities until 2027.
The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..." The four essential protections included are prohibitions against, for the same offense:
Waller v. Florida, 397 U.S. 387 (1970), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the Double Jeopardy Clause protects defendants from successive prosecutions by states and municipalities for offenses based on the same criminal conduct.
John Michael Plumb is an American equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of three-day eventing. He holds the title of the US Olympic competitor who has competed in the greatest number of Olympics, winning two team gold medals, three team silvers and one individual silver.
A citizen's right to a trial by jury is a central feature of the United States Constitution. It is considered a fundamental principle of the American legal system.
The conviction rate, expressed as a percentage, represents the proportion of cases resulting in a legal declaration of guilt for an offense, against the total number of trials completed. It is calculated by dividing the number of convictions by the total number of adjudicated cases and then multiplying by 100. A conviction is a legal declaration that someone is guilty of committing an offense, determined through a jury's or bench's verdict within a court of law.
Amy Tryon was an American equestrian known for her achievements in eventing.
Expungement in the United States is a process which varies across jurisdictions. Many states allow for criminal records to be sealed or expunged, although laws vary by state. Some states do not permit expungement, or allow expungement under very limited circumstances. In general, once sealed or expunged, all records of an arrest and of any subsequent court proceedings are removed from the public record, and the individual may legally deny or fail to acknowledge ever having been arrested for or charged with any crime which has been expunged.
Corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding is a felony under U.S. federal law. It was enacted as part of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 in reaction to the Enron scandal, and closed a legal loophole on who could be charged with evidence tampering by defining the new crime very broadly.
On February 18, 1994, a brother-sister pair were attacked by two men at a camping site in Ocala National Forest, Florida, United States. The 21-year-old sister was raped twice by the attackers, but the 18-year-old brother, John Timothy Edwards, was murdered by the same two perpetrators of the attack. During the same month, the two killers, William Christopher Paul and Loran Kenstley Cole, were arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder.
