I would tend to use both pleaded and pled, but with the following [bold]very[/bold] general rules:

I would use pleaded when the verb is intransitive and pled when the verb is transitive.

I pleaded with Theo to do his homework. Every night!

I pled ignorance.

I would also say, "I pled guilty." But I think even though guilty is technically an adjective, thus making the verb intransitive, that the construction uses guilty as a noun, or as a substitution for the phrase "state of being guilty."

I would never think, speak, or write that I pled with Theo to do his homework. That would always be pleaded.

To plea or not to plea. Hey, Asp, there it is!


TEd