A retired Oklahoma judge once considered a "pillar" of his community will fight to regain his reputation next week against accusations that he masturbated and exposed himself on the bench while presiding over four trials.

But a lawyer for 59-year-old Donald Thompson says the damage has already been done by the charges against him, which allege that he used a device known as a "penis pump" in the presence of trial witnesses, jurors and court personnel.

Thompson, a former state representative, resigned when the allegations surfaced in 2004, thereby avoiding a trial on allegations of judicial misconduct and "moral turpitude." In doing so, he has been able to draw on his pension, but that will change if he becomes a convicted felon.

Thompson now runs a car wash business in his hometown of Sapulpa, where he cultivated his reputation as one of Oklahoma's most respected jurists and raised three sons with his wife of 30 years.

"This is a person who was very circumspect in all aspects of his life as a public figure, so this has pushed him further into seclusion just by the sheer humiliation attached to the allegations," Thompson's Tulsa-based attorney, Clark Brewster, said. "It has been absolutely devastating for him and his family."

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Brewster does not deny the existence of the sex toy, but claims that Thompson kept it on the bench among a menagerie of "knickknacks," including a stress ball and a shoe shine kit, that he often "fiddled" with during idle moments.

"It was given to him by an old friend as a gag gift," Brewster said of the pump.

The disgraced jurist faces potential prison time on four felony counts of indecent exposure, and would also be required to register as a sex offender if convicted.