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New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara has plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge for his alleged involvement in a fight in Las Vegas in 2022, and is no longer facing felony charges. For a quick legal summary, a guilty plea is an admission that you committed the crime. In contrast, a plea of nolo contendere, or no contest, means you accept the conviction or punishments of a guilty plea without admitting guilt. An Alford Plea is one where you plead guilty but claim you are innocent; both result in a conviction, technically speaking.
Most defendants enter no contest pleas in an agreement with the judge overseeing the case as they then determine the sentencing or outcome. In Kamara’s case, he’s agreed to serve 30 hours of community service and to pay $105,000 in medical bills for the alleged victim. A key factor in no contest pleas is that they cannot be used as an admission of guilt in civil proceedings, which have also been settled.
The NFL’s new conduct policy has taken the approach to wait until criminal proceedings play out in court before handing down discipline, in this case likely a multi-game suspension. Importantly, the policy considers a criminal conviction equal to being subject to a “disposition of criminal proceedings” in assessing disciplinary actions, defined in their policy as follows:
“Includes an adjudication of guilt or admission to a criminal violation; a plea to a lesser included offense; a plea of nolo contendere or no contest; or the disposition of the proceeding through a diversionary program, deferred adjudication, disposition of supervision, conditional dismissal, or similar arrangements.”
The league takes repeat offenders into account in assessing periods of suspension, and Kamara importantly has no prior history of conduct detrimental to the league. Unlike Marshon Lattimore’s case involving alleged possession of a stolen gun, charges of which he plead down to a misdemeanor in 2021, Kamara’s allegations are of a violent nature; a suspension is to be expected.
Looking at previous cases, the most similar suspension was to a former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman, Bryant McKinnie, in 2008 for four games after he was arrested on aggravated battery charges outside a nightclub. Violence of domestic nature, child abuse, and sexual assault cases typically incur higher punishments in the form of six or more game suspensions. The NFL is ultimately not a legal entity and legal precedent doesn’t hold bindings to their prior issuances of suspensions. It’s impossible to predict, but a suspension of four to six games would be in line with established precedent.
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