Chad Michael Salsman, the District Attorney of Bradford County, is accused of sexually assaulting five female clients in his office during his time as their defense attorney. The Republican was arrested and indicted on multiple charges including sexual assault, indecent assault, witness intimidation, obstruction of justice and promoting prostitution.
The victims alleged that the Pennsylvania prosecutor sought sex and nude photographs from them in lieu of his legal services. The victims had approached Salsman with cases pertaining to sexual abuse and child custody cases.
'DA Picked Victims Who Would be Easy To Silence'- Shapiro
The Daily Beast reported that the prosecutors claimed that Salsman either sexually assaulted multiple women or forced them to engage in sexual acts with him. It was also revealed that Salsman performed sex acts on the victims on his office desk. Later he would ask them to clean up using paper towels or cleaning wipes in his bathroom, the criminal complaint stated.
In a statement, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said that Salsman would regularly use his position and power as an attorney to coerce his victims into performing sexual acts on him.
"He would bring them into his private office, under the guise of discussing their case, and used his knowledge of his clients' vulnerabilities to negate their consent and sexually assault them. Salsman picked these victims because they didn't have any other choice, because he thought they would be easy to silence, and less likely to be believed if they ever came forward," he added.
Salsman Asked His Secretary to Play Loud Music
The outlet reported that a few members of Salsman's staff testified against him stating that they saw women leave his office in distress and that their boss went to great lengths to hide the abuse, including asking his secretary to play music or use a white noise machine to drown out the noise.
One of Salsman's victim was a prior violent rape victim. Another woman, mentioned as L.J. in the documents, claimed that the father of three "requested she provide nude photographs or videos depicting sexual acts between [her] and her girlfriend," the complaint states.
"Five women, independent of one another, experienced the same pattern of advances, coercion, and assault at the hands of Mr. Salsman when he was a defense attorney. They had to rely on Salsman to be their advocate, to represent them at a time they felt powerless, and instead they were preyed upon," Shapiro said in the statement.
