CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A judge’s bid to be reinstated after he was convicted of groping five women while drunk at a conference is sparking outrage among his victims and sexual assault victim advocates.

Joan Sergio, one of the women groped by Rochester District Court Judge Franklin Jones, said reinstating him would send a message to victims that the state doesn’t take sexual assault seriously and would imply alcohol abuse can excuse a crime.

“If he’s reinstated, it’s a crime in and of itself,” Sergio said in a telephone interview Friday. “People are going to look at it and think the judicial system’s a joke.”

Jones grabbed the women’s breasts and buttocks in May after hours during a conference on domestic and sexual violence.

Jones, who has said he was so drunk he doesn’t fully remember the night’s events, knew the women because they worked as victim advocates in his courtroom. All of them except Sergio have since left the court to work elsewhere.

Sergio said Jones repeatedly has told defendants alcohol is no excuse in a crime.

Both Jones and his lawyers have declined to speak with reporters.

Then-Attorney General Peter Heed was accused of inappropriately touching a woman at the same conference, which the state sponsored. Heed resigned, though an investigation subsequently cleared him.

Jones was suspended and avoided jail time by agreeing in September to plead no contest to five misdemeanor assault charges and to spend seven days in an alcohol treatment center, though he already had spent nearly a month in a treatment program. He is on probation.

Meanwhile, the state’s Judicial Conduct Committee is conducting a hearing to decide whether he should remain suspended. Jones admits violating the state’s code of conduct for judges. His lawyers say he has been punished enough.

Jones’ defense team packed the hearing room with supporters Wednesday. The supporters, some of them women, included a state senator, police officers and prosecutors who praised Jones’ performance as a judge and said one incident shouldn’t end his career.

Victims and advocates called the show of support a travesty, particularly because participants included public officials responsible for arresting, prosecuting and sentencing sex offenders, along with a lawmaker.

The support may already have irreparably damaged victims’ faith in the court system’s integrity, even if Jones is never reinstated, said Sarah Graham Miller, a spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

“If I was a victim in New Hampshire and I was thinking about whether or not to bring my charges forward, I might look at this and think twice,” she said.

Sergio and two other victims testified Wednesday. She criticized the process, saying the victims could not address the committee in private and had to recount the incidents before a crowd of Jones’ supporters.

She also complained that committee members socialized with Jones during breaks.

“It’s been terrible,” she said. “The whole thing has been just awful.”

Grace Mattern, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, says that when evaluating testimony in support of Jones, the committee should remember that judges hold a great deal of power over police officers and court system employees.

Mattern is starting a campaign to gather letters opposing Jones’ reinstatement. She said she also plans to contact the committee’s prosecutor and offer to help keep Jones off the bench.

“There are a lot of people in recovery from alcoholism,” Mattern said. “I believe it’s possible to have engaged in sex-offending behavior and stop that behavior. Whether or not that allows you to continue being a judge is a totally different question.”

The case is uncharted territory for the committee, said Anthony McManus, the group’s executive secretary. The committee has not reviewed another case of a judge committing sexual assault, and it does not have a clear list of offenses that would bar a judge from reinstatement, he said.

“I think the committee is probably guided by common sense, their own experience and their concern for the integrity of the system,” McManus said.

The committee’s 11 members include judges, a court clerk, a lawyer and several citizens. The hearing is like a trial, with prosecutors and defense lawyers, witnesses and evidence. The public cannot directly participate, but can contact either side’s lawyers and offer to testify.

If reinstated, Jones could sit in judgment in cases involving crimes like those he was convicted of committing. District courts also oversee domestic violence cases and review petitions for restraining orders.

The hearing is due to resume Jan. 14.

AP-ES-01-07-05 1908EST