Chicago family law attorney charged with more sex crimes

CHICAGO (AP) — A prominent Chicago family law attorney who was charged last summer with sexually assaulting a colleague has been charged with doing the same thing to two other women, including a client who says he told her that if he didn't have sex with him, she'd lose custody of her children.

Prosecutors outlined the new charges against David Pasulka, 61, during a court hearing on Wednesday that ended with Judge Susana Ortiz setting his new bail amount at $100,000 on charges of sexual assault, aggravated sex assault and criminal sexual abuse.

Pasulka, who was already out on bond in the initial case, was released from custody after posting the new amount, according to the Cook County Jail. He doesn't have a listed home phone number and a call to his office was not immediately returned.

During the hearing, prosecutors said that one of the alleged victims was a client in a divorce case and another was an employee at his law office, both of whose allegations were made public after Pasulka was arrested last summer.

The client told authorities that in 2017, Pasulka inappropriately touched her during a meeting and then told her that if she didn’t have sex with him, she would lose custody of her children, prosecutors said.

Pasulka is also charged with sexually assaulting a 31-year-old paralegal at his office, most recently in 2019. Prosecutors said he committed the crimes while threatening to destroy her reputation and that there were other assaults on her and the client for which he wasn't charged because the statute of limitations on those attacks had expired.

According to court records, Pasulka was barred from practicing law after the first charges were filed, pending disciplinary action by the state's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.