By KRWG News
El Paso – Jurors in the El Paso federal trial of a judge accused of seeking cash and sex in exchange for court favors heard five prosecution tape recordings.
But attorneys for State District Judge Manuel Barraza maintained that the FBI asked a female witness to call the judge, record the conversation and force him to talk about sex.
Testimony was scheduled to resume Thursday.
Prosecutors opened Wednesday with an El Paso County Sheriff's Detective Benjamin Perales testifying about getting a December 2008 tip about Barraza allegedly offering court favors.
Barraza, who denies the allegations, was sworn in as a judge a few weeks later. He was arrested in April.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.