Salem, Oregon- The State Professional Responsibility Board will decide Friday whether Salem attorney Michael Mauro Pacheco is fit to remain an attorney in Oregon or whether he should be suspended or disbarred for alleged ethics violations.

Pacheco, 52, is charged in Marion County with felony unlawful sexual penetration, misdemeanor attempted third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse.

He is accused of making forcible sexual advances to three female employees of his law office between fall 2003 and spring 2005, including one who was a 17-year-old high school student.

Pacheco, who is a former member of the state Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision and a former Jackson County deputy district attorney, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He is being held in the Marion County jail without bail.

“It’s a very serious case because of the allegations that he engaged in forcible conduct and because a juvenile was involved as one of the victims,” said Deputy District Attorney Darin Tweedt.

Salem police began investigating the current case in June, after an adult female employee of Pacheco’s reported that he had attempted to kiss her, grabbed her buttocks, forcefully unzipped and pulled down her pants, touched her genitals and made her touch his genitals in more than one incident between May 1, and June 3, 2005.

Police investigated Pacheco after receiving reports in October and December of 2003 from another woman and a teenager, who claimed individually that he had tried to kiss them.

The 2003 cases was referred then to the Clackamas County District Attorney’s office because the Marion County office had a conflict of interest at that time, Tweedt said.

The Clackamas County office decided that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, Tweedt said.

By the time the new complaint was made, the Marion County office no longer had a conflict of interest. With the new allegations, Tweedt decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Pacheco on all three cases. He took the case to a grand jury, which indicted Pacheco.

On Sept. 15, Pacheco’s attorney, Daniel Goff of Eugene, filed a motion for an evidence hearing for his release. If granted, it will be Pacheco’s second bail hearing.

New evidence has been discovered, Goff wrote in his motion, including findings and opinions of qualified experts in polygraphy and psychology that relate to the relationship between Pacheco and one of the women.

Under the Oregon constitution a person can be held without bail before trial if the state can prove probable cause and that the defendant is a danger to the victim or the community.

In an interview with Salem police about the two 2003 cases, Pacheco told police that he had tried only to kiss one of the women after apparently misreading her. He said that after she had left his employ, he thought their relationship could go further. About the 17-year-old, he said he had hugged her but did not kiss her.

Information on the current status of Pacheco’s law practice in Salem was not available. However, his name is no longer listed among attorneys at either of his two most recent State Street offices.

The Oregon State Bar Association opened an investigation into Pacheco’s conduct in late June, said spokeswoman Kateri Walsh. In addition, the state bar is also investigating an unrelated matter in which Pacheco is accused of submitting a false affidavit in a civil litigation case.

Pacheco, who was admitted to the state bar in 1991, has five complaints in his file, including the latest one. The previous four were dismissed.

According to a state bar summary on the sex case: “Pacheco has asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and has not provided any substantive or factual response to the criminal charges pending against him.”