Washington- An Olympia lawyer appeared in court Monday on allegations that he sent nude pictures of himself to a teenage girl he was hired to represent.

The Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office plans to charge Roland T. Hunter with attempted exploitation of a minor and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

Olympia and Tumwater police found evidence that he sent a 17-year-old high school student photos of himself naked and e-mails asking if he could videotape the two of them having sex.

The evidence was stored on digital cameras and three computers that Olympia police with a search warrant found in Hunter’s house, according to court documents. Forensic examiners were able to recover the files even though they had been deleted.

Hunter was arrested Friday and booked into Thurston County Jail. Thurston County District Court Judge Kip Stilz set his bail at $20,000 Monday.

The attorney also is accused of tampering with a witness related to his case. Prosecutors allege that he asked a former girlfriend to tell police she was the one who sent the pictures of him to the 17-year-old. In exchange, Hunter allegedly said, he would buy his former girlfriend a new car and pay her college tuition, according to documents from the prosecutor’s office.

The 17-year-old and the ex-girlfriend do not know each other, according to deputy prosecutor Jodilyn Erikson-Muldrew, who is handling the case. Erikson-Muldrew would not say why Hunter was hired to represent the teenager.

Hunter could face a maximum of 11 years’ imprisonment if convicted of the alleged crimes, two of which are felonies. He also could be disbarred, according to a spokeswoman for the Washington State Bar Association.

“If a lawyer is convicted of a felony, we must file a formal complaint and petition the (state) Supreme Court for an order suspending or disbarring the lawyer,” said Judy Berrett, the bar association spokeswoman. “In Washington only the Supreme Court has the authority to suspend or disbar lawyers.”

Although lawyers convicted of felonies are not disbarred as a rule, they have been in recent cases, Berrett said.

“The bar association takes discipline of a lawyer very seriously,” Berrett said. “It’s our largest department here at the bar, and it has to do with protection of the public.”

Hunter does not have a disciplinary history with the bar association, Berrett said.

He has had brushes with the law, according to Stilz.

Hunter recently asked for a protection order against the same ex-girlfriend who now is the witness in this case. As the details of that case unfolded, it became clear that Hunter had been harassing the girlfriend by sending her naked pictures of himself by e-mail, and his petition was not granted, according to Stilz.

“I’m troubled because a check of his case history and an anti-harassment case against him shows behavior in the past year similar to this behavior,” Stilz said. “I’m concerned there’s a pattern of behavior here.”

The allegations stem from e-mails that began in November. A friend of the 17-year-old reported the e-mails to a counselor at New Market Vocational Skills Center, where both are students, according to the court documents.

The counselor called police, who recovered the e-mails from computers at the school.

“It’s comforting that fellow students brought this information forward,” said the school’s executive director, John Aultman. “We’re doing the things that would keep a support network around the student and family.”