The three clients of a local lawyer who accused him of coercing them into having sex with him told investigators that they often provided sex voluntarily — occasionally in an empty jury room at the Bexar County Courthouse — in exchange for his money or his legal services.

According to an affidavit backing an arrest warrant for the lawyer, Mark H. Benavides, 46, some of the witnesses identified him by the “scales of justice” tattoo on his back.

Arrested Tuesday evening on a charge of compelling prostitution, a second degree felony, Benavides was released on $15,000 bond the same night. He declined comment Wednesday through a neighbor at his North Side home.

By then, the lurid nature of the case had sent ripples through county legal and political circles. Benavides had been campaigning for the 175th District Court judgeship now held by Mary Roman, a fellow Democrat.

He had not yet filed for the position in the 2016 Democratic primary, the party’s county chairman, Manuel Medina, said Wednesday.

“At this moment, he is not a candidate, and I’m sure running for office is the furthest thing from his mind,” Medina added.

The Bexar County district attorney’s office helped identify possible victims to assist a stalled police investigation and built the charge on interviews with three accusers and two witnesses, according to the warrant affidavit.

The first accuser told investigators she met Benavides when she was 21 in 2005 and a prostitute on the West Side. She said they had sex at the River Inn Motel at Frio and Guadalupe streets and that Benavides offered more money if he could film their encounter, the affidavit states.

Afterward, he handed her his card and offered his services as a lawyer if she ever needed help, which led to numerous sexual encounters at Benavides’ law office, his vehicle, his father’s office and in the courthouse, according to the affidavit.

Starting in 2009, when Benavides began representing her in court, she paid for his legal services with sex, never money, even though she didn’t want to perform at times, she told investigators, according to the affidavit.

She recalled an incident in which her mother almost caught them having sex in a room next to the 186th District Court, repeatedly turning the doorknob until Benavides opened the door and told her she could not enter because of attorney-client privilege, the affidavit states.

The affidavit does not say when the arrangement ended but says the accuser told investigators that in 2012, she saw campaign signs that Benavides was running for a judgeship, decided to call him and, when she refused his advances, he reminded her that he had video of them having sex.

It was unclear from the affidavit if that convinced her to meet him again. This year, Benavides saw the woman in court and motioned to her but she ignored him, the affidavit said.

Bexar County election records do not list Benavides running for any office in 2012. He lost a close Democratic primary contest for the 186th State District judgeship to Mary T. Green in 2014.

Another former client of Benavides told investigators the two met repeatedly at his friend’s office on Buena Vista Street and had sex, according to the affidavit.

A witness interviewed by police said she would drive the woman to meet Benavides for sex and that she filmed the two having sex for him, the affidavit states.

The former client told police she was a defendant in a criminal case in 2012 in the 399th District Court and believed Benavides’ relationship with the judge was such that it could hurt her case if she did not agree to have sex with Benavides. The affidavit did not name the judge but the district attorney’s office said in a statement Wednesday that the judge in office at the time was Ray Olivarri, a Democrat who ousted the incumbent Republican, Juanita Vasquez-Gardner, from that bench in 2012.

Olivarri “was the judge at the time of the victim’s allegations,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

“Because this is an ongoing investigation, at this time I cannot make any comment,“ Olivarri said in a statement released by his office. The judge is recovering from surgery and isn’t expected back until Dec. 1.

A third accuser was represented by Benavides in two separate cases, according to the affidavit. When she didn’t have the money to pay for his legal services in one case, she told investigators, she had to meet him every Tuesday to make “payments” at a motel, the document states.

When she refused to meet him one week, he made good on his threat to “go off her bond” and she was subsequently arrested, according to the affidavit.

Benavides repeatedly met at least two of the accusers for sex at the River Inn Motel, where district attorney’s office investigators obtained surveillance video showing him paying for a room there, the affidavit states.

The affidavit did not name the accusers but in a brief statement the district attorney’s office indicated one of them was a former client who publicly accused Benavides in October at a court hearing in which she was seeking to have her intoxication manslaughter conviction set aside.

At the hearing, she said she had sex with Benavides in a jury room adjacent to a courtroom. Benavides, who represented the woman in the manslaughter case, denied it, telling a KSAT-TV reporter she was upset that she received a 15-year sentence for killing a man and was making up lies about him.

“Judges and attorneys are not above the law,” said Medina, the Democratic Party chairman. “Honesty and integrity are vital in public office.”

Staff Writer Elizabeth Zavala contributed to this report.

jbeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA