Carroll County, Tenn.–A Carroll County attorney has again been suspended from practicing law. According to the State Board of Professional Responsibility, Benjamin Dempsey has been convicted of simple assault by offensive touching and engaged in improper trust accounting.
Dempsey, who has offices in Huntingdon and Paris, has been suspended by the Supreme Court of Tennessee for five years, with three years active and the remainder on probation.
According to the press release from the State Board of Professional Responsibility, Dempsey’s active suspension shall be retroactive to August 16, 2018. Dempsey is required to pay the Board for all costs in the disciplinary proceeding.
The release states:
“Dempsey admitted violating the Rules of Professional Conduct in two matters. In the first matter, Mr. Dempsey entered an Alford plea and was convicted of the Class B misdemeanor offense of simple assault by offensive touching. In the second matter, Mr. Dempsey was suspended for three (3) years by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee for misappropriating funds, engaging in improper trust accounting, making misrepresentations to his client and the Court, and failing to refund fees to his client in a timely manner.
Mr. Dempsey admitted his conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3 (Diligence), 1.4 (Communication), 1.5 (Fees), 1.15 (Safekeeping Property and Funds), 1.16 (Declining or Terminating Representation), 3.4 (Fairness to Opposing Counsel), 5.3 (Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistance), and 8.4(a), (b), (c), and (d) (Misconduct).
In 2018, the Supreme Court of Tennessee has temporarily suspended Dempsey from the practice of law upon finding that Dempsey misappropriated funds and poses a threat of substantial harm to the public.
In 2016, the Carroll County Grand Jury indicted Dempsey on a charge of sexual battery.