diverting of a controlled substance

[Knwill]

There is a physician in Arkansas that was allowed to plead "no contest" to 3 counts of diverting a controlled substance by fraud (he was esentially stealing drugs from his patients). 2 years AFTER adjudication, he was allowed to withdraw this plea of "no contest" and enter a plea of "not gulity".

Question: How (or when) can a plea of "no contest" which was accepted by the court, be withdrawn under the law?

How can a person change their plea if there were no problems with the original judgment (the defendant understood the plea, etc.)?

What is the statute of limitations in Arkansas for trying a drug case, and now that he just changed his plea (two years after the charges) will he still be tried?

Thank you for your help.

 

[lawrat]

You must be careful about the word adjudication.

Please come back with an exact account of the status of the case.

 

[Knwill]

Clarification of case status

In response to your Reply regarding the use of the word "Adjudication". My understnding of this word is that the case has been taken before a court, a plea has been entered, the plea was accepted by the court, sentence was pronounced and carried out. In the case that I have a question about, all of the above criteria were met. Two years after sentencing (which was repaying monetary damages and 5 years probation with 3 supervised), the defendant was somehow allowed to go back and change this plea. According to the Rules of Criminal procedure for Arkansas, this case does not meet any of the criteria set forth in the rules to have allowed the plea to be changed. I am looking for some insight into why this was allowed to happen.

Also, since the plea of "no contest" was allowed to be withdrawn, does this person start over? Are they re-charged with the crimes and then go through a jury trial. Since they have plead "no contest" once before, which was accepted by the court, can they plea this again?

I would appreciate any information I can get on this. Thank you.