A once-powerful New Jersey state senator is about to go on trial again in another corruption case.
Wayne Bryant's nonjury trial is scheduled to start Tuesday. Potential witnesses include several major figures in southern Jersey politics.
Bryant's accused of taking $192,000 in phony legal fees from 2004 to 2006. Authorities say that came in exchange for exerting political influence to try to get billion-dollar redevelopment projects done in Camden, Pennsauken and the New Jersey Meadowlands.
But the 64-year-old Democrat from Lawnside says the payments weren't bribes but rather a retainer payment. He faces 20 counts of mail fraud and one count each of soliciting corruption and extortion under color of official right.
Bryant is already serving a four-year prison term he received after his 2008 conviction on 12 corruption charges.
