The government focused on the lies.

The defense focused on the medical records.

What the jury will focus on remains to be seen.

The panel of six men and six women will begin deliberating the federal criminal charges against former state Superior Court Judge Michael T. Joyce this morning.

They listened yesterday for five hours as attorneys for both sides summarized the case that began last month. Mr. Joyce is charged with two counts of mail fraud and six counts of money laundering stemming from an August 2001 slow-speed car crash. Mr. Joyce claimed that he had neck injuries from the accident and received insurance payouts totaling $440,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold spent two hours of his closing argument dismissing the defendant's medical claims and instead focusing on what he said were Mr. Joyce's lies.

He focused on one particular day, April 8, 2002. That day, the attorney said, Mr. Joyce went to one doctor and said he'd been having tremors and could no longer hold a coffee cup.

That same day, Mr. Joyce went for a physical with another doctor to obtain his pilot's license. There, he filled out a form for the Federal Aviation Administration and did not report any medical issues at all.

"You can't have a genuine belief that you have medical problems and then turn it on and off," Mr. Trabold said. "His signing of that form is all the evidence you need that this defendant didn't tell Erie Insurance the truth."

Mr. Trabold recited a litany of lies he said Mr. Joyce told to the insurance company related to the injuries he suffered from the car accident. In an 18-page narrative, Mr. Joyce said he could no longer concentrate at work, that he had to give up SCUBA diving and golf, that he was forced to give up a bid for the state Supreme Court, that he needed to have surgery and that the crash occurred at a speed of 20 to 25 mph.

None of those things were true, the prosecutor continued.

No matter what the extent of Mr. Joyce's injuries, Mr. Trabold said, the man stopped going to physical therapy the day after he received his check from Erie Insurance.

Testimony throughout the trial showed that Mr. Joyce at various times in his life has believed that he had a brain tumor, Lou Gehrig's disease, heart attacks, HIV and meningitis. He had none of those.

"How many times does a guy need to go to his doctor with ginned-up, made-up symptoms before he loses all credibility entirely?" Mr. Trabold asked.

But defense attorney Robert Leight said it doesn't matter if Mr. Joyce had any of those illnesses. What does matter is that he believed that he did.

"He always believed his injuries were more serious than they were," Mr. Leight said. "Two plus two never added up to four for Mr. Joyce. It added up to eight, and that's why he's not guilty of a crime in this case."

The government did not show that Mr. Joyce ever intended to defraud anyone, the defense attorney continued.

"If Mr. Joyce shows he acted in good faith, that's a complete defense to this case," Mr. Leight said.

He further instructed the jurors that it is not up to them to decide if Mr. Joyce's injuries were worth $440,000.

"Every medical person that's testified in this case agrees Mr. Joyce was injured in some way," Mr. Leight said.

If Mr. Joyce really committed fraud, he continued, why then did the man offer to the insurance companies and later investigators to review his medical records? Why did he volunteer to be examined by a doctor chosen by the insurance company, he continued.

He called the motive offered up by the government -- that Mr. Joyce needed money -- "a red herring.

"Why would a man who has so much to lose risk it all for a few hundred thousand dollars?" Mr. Leight asked.