Attorney Gary Michael Appelblatt invited the clients into his American River Drive law office and drew the blinds. He shooed out any visitors and he locked the door.

Then, testimony showed, the 57-year-old divorce lawyer moved the women over for physical exams on what the judge described as the attorney's "convenient couch." Some had their tops removed, and he reached into the pants of some of the other women.

His lawyer argued it was all consensual, but the prosecutor called Appel-blatt a fraud and said he used his profession, his knowledge of the medical world and the pharmacist's degree hanging on his wall to dupe the victims for his own sexual gratification.

At the end of Appelblatt's preliminary hearing Friday in Sacramento Superior Court, the judge found enough evidence to hold him for trial, on nine felony counts of sexual battery under the guise of a "professional purpose."

"I do believe these are vulnerable people he is taking advantage of," Deputy District Attorney Keith Hill argued at the end of the hearing. "He goes until they say no. This is exactly the type of case this statute was enacted for."

Superior Court Judge Charlene P. Kiesselbach also ordered Appelblatt to stand trial on four more four misdemeanor counts of sexual touching against a person's will.

Appelblatt declined to comment after the hearing.

His attorney, Tom Johnson, argued the women knew they weren't seeing him under any pretense of a medical encounter. And in spite of the awkward moments, the lawyer said some of the women still kept Appelblatt on to the conclusion of their divorce cases.

"These were all adults," Johnson said. "They went into his office voluntarily and they dealt with him."

The complaint against Appelblatt lists five victims by their first names and last initials, in the 13 counts that prosecutors say took place dating back to 2003.

The first alleged victim contacted the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department on Feb. 17. The publicity generated by Appelblatt's subsequent arrest drew out the other four.

All of the women's complaints followed a pattern detailed by M.W., the first woman to come forward. The Bee is withholding her name because of the nature of the charges.

According to the testimony of sheriff's Detective Anthony Brantley, M.W. met with Appelblatt to discuss her divorce from her husband. Early in the interview, Appelblatt told the woman he had a pharmacy degree. Then he told her she looked sick and came out from behind his desk and obtained her consent to feel the glands in her neck, Brantley said.

Brantley said Appelblatt next pulled out a stethoscope and a rubber reflex mallet. Then he had M.W. move over to the couch and take off her tank top. Appelblatt went on to conduct something "like a breast exam," Brantley said the woman told him.

When he got her to lay down on the couch and made a move for her pants, "she stopped it," Brantley said. "She did up her pants and her clothes and ended the interview."

Appelblatt then apologized, Brantley testified, and told M.W. "to keep it between the two of them."

The other four encounters unfolded essentially the same way. Appelblatt took one of the examinations into more sexually explicit territory, according to Brantley's testimony.

A motion to dismiss the case filed by Johnson and dismissed by Kiesselbach said that in his apology to one of the alleged victims, Appelblatt offered to reduce her bill by $5,000 if she would have sex with him. He said he'd drop the price even more if she would talk a girlfriend into joining them, the motion said.

The woman hung up on Appelblatt, but according to the court motion, the lawyer stopped billing her on her divorce case.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.