COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday voted to prohibit a Butler County lawyer and former Hamilton judge from practicing law for six months, agreeing with a disciplinary board that Michael S. Conese improperly kept $1,000 of a client's money then lied to investigators about it.

        In a ruling awaited since oral arguments in June, justices voted for the sanction 5-1, with Justice Deborah L. Cook dissenting. She thought Mr. Conese should be disbarred.

Conese

        Justice Cook wrote that disbarment is the presumed penalty for lawyers who misappropriate clients' funds.

        Mr. Conese's dishonesty with investigators was “a serious aggravating circumstance,” she said, so he should be suspended indefinitely from practicing law.

        The majority opinion agreed that “(he) falsely represented that he had returned the $1,000 in dispute to his client.” However, the justices said two significant factors were in Mr. Conese's favor: He had “never been in difficulty with the law,” and “had served honorably as (Hamilton) municipal court judge in Butler County.”

        Under the justices' order, Mr. Conese is subject to an additional six-month suspension if he commits further misconduct.

        Mr. Conese's lawyer, George M. Parker, who had argued that Mr. Conese was honest and “never kept money that wasn't his,” declined to comment Wednesday.

        The court said it agreed with the state Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline for lawyers, which recommended the six-month suspension in February. The board found that Mr. Conese violated four rules of professional conduct for Ohio attorneys.

        Officials said Mr. Conese improperly kept $1,000 that was supposed to go toward a client's child-support arrearage in 1997 and also failed to provide documentation showing what he had done to deserve payment of $3,000 in legal fees from that client.

        Mr. Conese disagreed with that decision and appealed to the Supreme Court.

        The court's decision is the latest blow to the Conese family. Earlier this year, a jury convicted Mr. Conese's brother, Mark, 44, a former domestic-relations judge and elections board member, of soliciting an improper contribution to the Butler County Democratic Party.

        The charge was a misdemeanor; jurors deadlocked over a felony charge of misconduct of an elections board member, then a judge dismissed that charge. Mark Conese, who was fined $250 and prohibited from holding public office for seven years, is appealing.

        E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com