TOWANDA, Pa. — Bradford County District Attorney Chad Salsman was charged last week with sexual assault.
The accusations are from his time in private practice before he was the D.A.
A group of women Newswatch 16 spoke with were not the only ones who were upset when Salsman returned to work the day after he was accused of sexually assaulting "vulnerable female clients" while he was a lawyer in Towanda.
More than 2,000 other people have a petition calling on him to be removed from his position.
"It really upset me that he just went back to work like it was nothing like they hadn't laid out all those charges. So I went and read the entire criminal complaint, and as a mom and a grandma, I thought, 'What if that had been one of our girls?'" said Elizabeth Owen of Strong Women of Bradford County.
In addition to the petition, members of the organization called the Strong Women of Bradford County penned a letter to local newspapers calling on Salsman to resign.
"Every day that he spends in office makes a mockery of the women that have accused him of these crimes, the women who potentially were victimized by him who haven't come forward, women who have experienced the same thing at someone else's hand and the people of Bradford County in general," Mandy Wakely, another member of the group.
In a statement, Salsman says he refused the attorney general's offer to be treated less harshly if he resigned because he's innocent.
"Mr. Salsman is entitled to that. Every defendant should be. But I think it does have an impact that victims, even of other kinds of crimes in the county, aren't going to feel comfortable dealing with him," said group member Jennifer Knecht.
Salsman also says the attorney general publicly humiliated him and is attempting to destroy his life and career.
"I think if, in the end, he is found innocent, I don't think Chad Salsman will have any difficulty rebuilding his life," Owen added.
The women Newswatch 16 spoke to say the victims who came forward are brave for standing up to a person in power, and they deserve to have their voices heard.