From Legal-Explanations.com
No Contest
n. Defendant’s court plea that he/she will not dispute the charge of a particular crime, also called nolo contendere. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt for the crime’s commission, but the judge will treat the plea as such and proceed to find the defendant guilty as charged. In cases that involve a potential lawsuit for damages by someone who was injured by criminal conduct, a no contest plea will be issued because it cannot be used as an admission of fault in the civil lawsuit. (full definition)
n. Defendant’s court plea that he/she will not dispute the charge of a particular crime, also called nolo contendere. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt for the crime’s commission, but the judge will treat the plea as such and proceed to find the defendant guilty as charged. In cases that involve a potential lawsuit for damages by someone who was injured by criminal conduct, a no contest plea will be issued because it cannot be used as an admission of fault in the civil lawsuit. (full definition)
Well, at the end of the day Governor Taft is still a convicted criminal whether he plead guilty or otherwise. The Governor was fined $4,000 and ordered to apologize to the people of Ohio. Now surely his apology to the people of Ohio was straightforward and sincere, right? Let’s see...
From WashingtonPost.com
Apology Statement From Ohio Gov. Bob Taft
"I am here today to publicly apologize to the people of the State of Ohio for my failure to provide complete financial disclosure statements to the Ohio Ethics Commission as mandated by law. I accept total responsibility for my mistake, and I'm sorry.
"As a public official, I am required to submit financial disclosure statements on a yearly basis listing the sources of gifts in excess of $75.00. My office had a system in place to ascertain the value of tangible gifts in order to report them as required. Regrettably, I did not establish an adequate system to monitor the value of golf outings and other social events.
"As recreation, I have played many rounds of golf with friends and acquaintances. I paid for some of these outings, while others I did not. I have now confirmed that forty-five golf outings over a period of seven years exceeded $75.00 in value and therefore should have been reported on my financial disclosure statements. In addition, over the same period of time, six other social events and one gift were not disclosed.
[...]
"As Governor, I have made it clear that I expect all public employees to follow both the letter and the spirit of the ethics laws, and have demanded no less of myself. I have personally failed to live up to those expectations, as well as the expectations of the public, and I am disappointed in myself. I have a renewed commitment to correct the problems that contributed to this situation and have already taken steps to do so.
"Words are not adequate to express the remorse that I feel personally for the embarrassment that I have caused to my administration and to this great state. I want to offer my sincere and heartfelt apology to my family, friends, staff members, and all those who have supported me. Most importantly, I want to apologize to the citizens of Ohio. I hope you will understand that my mistake, though serious, was not a purposeful one and hope and pray that you will accept my heartfelt apology and allow me the opportunity to restore your trust." (full article)
So Ohioans are left with no admission of guilt and the continued assertion that the whole affair was nothing more than a series of innocent, well-intentioned mistakes. Is this how plain folks “take full responsibility” or is this particular method reserved for fancy elected-types?
We'd certainly like to say this is the end of the whole sordid tale, but there's still the matter of the missing $12 million of Ohio taxpayer money that has yet to be resolved. Afterall, it is "Coingate" we're talking about here, not "Golfgate."
