Closings Set in Insurance Fraud Trial of Former Pennsylania Judge

A federal court jury in Pittsburgh has had a long weekend to mull nearly three weeks of testimony in the fraud trial of a retired Pennsylvania appellate judge.

Testimony wrapped up Thursday and the jury will return today for closing arguments before deliberating mail fraud and money laundering charges against former Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce.

Joyce is accused of faking or exaggerating neck and back injuries to collect $440,000 from two insurance companies after an August 2001 traffic accident.

Several friends and judges have testified Joyce was in pain after the wreck. But prosecutors say Joyce continued to golf, inline skate, scuba dive and fly a private plane after the fender bender _ despite telling an insurers his life and career were all but derailed by the injuries.