Bennett, who is based in Cincinnati but also practices in Butler, Warren and Montgomery counties, was suspended for four violations of the rules governing Ohio attorneys’ conduct.
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In Butler County, Bennett has represented a former restaurant owner accused of impersonating a police officer, two women involved in a melee at a Fairfield pool, and a man involved in a fatal shooting in West Chester Twp.
“I am back. I am again ready, willing and able to fight for the accused,” Bennett said in a statement. “I have prayed. This is still what my GOD wants me to do. The passion, ability and commitment to win cases for my clients is still there. There is still ‘fire in the furnace.’ Indeed, notwithstanding my success in the past, I am still hungry. I have a perpetual ‘chip on my shoulder’ with something to prove.”
Bennett said in the past year he “worked out every day, traveled, rested and relaxed. More importantly, I spent significant time with my family and friends.”
The suspension followed claims of misconduct in an appellate case of John Kelley. Bennett was accused of misrepresenting why he failed to meet the deadline to appeal his client’s 25-year prison sentence.
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In 2014, Kelley was convicted of attempted murder and felonious assault for a 2013 double shooting in Sharonville. The Kelleys accused Bennett of not properly discussing what he was doing and missing a deadline to file a direct appeal for them.
Bennett told a panel in November that he’s not familiar with appellate matters, even though he was representing Kelley in an appellate case. He called the case “the only time I’ve ever failed a client.”
The suspension was Bennett’s third in a decade, according to the Ohio Supreme Court website.
Bennett was indefinitely suspended in 2010 based on a 2007 federal conviction for which he received a two-year prison sentence.
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