Dep. D.A. Marc Bennett cited for misconduct
The Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling Friday in which it cited Sedgwick County Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett for prosecutorial misconduct.
Bennett, who won the Aug. 7 Republican primary for Sedgwick County District Attorney and faces no opposition in November, was the prosecutor in the 2008 trial of Robert Ontiberos, who authorities wanted to have confined to a mental hospital indefinitely as a sexually violent predator. Ontiberos has previous convictions of attempted rape in 1983 and aggravated sexual battery in 2001.
The high court ruled that Bennett had committed an error by talking about evidence without properly admitting it for the jury to see. Bennett was also said to have mischaracterized Ontiberos' prison discipline report.
A new trial has been ordered for Ontiberos, who remains in the Larned State Hospital.
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