By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A Manhattan judge got a taste of life on the other side of the bench Friday when she went on trial for allegedly trying to flout campaign donations rules.
Surrogate's Court Judge Nora Anderson, 57, who was elected to the bench in 2008, allegedly accepted $250,000 from her former boss, 82-year-old Seth Rubenstein, a Brooklyn trusts-and-estates lawyer.
Prosecutors said Anderson tried to pass off a massive donation from Rubenstein as her own money by repaying a $225,000 loan from him, then later funneling a $100,000 and a $150,000 payment from him through her own bank accounts.
New York's election law bars any donations above $33,122.50 from a non-candidate.
A lawyer for Rubenstein called the filings by Anderson "entirely proper" and asked the jury to defer to financial evidence showing Anderson properly reported the money that passed through her account.
"These were true statements. You will see the check, it is in the name of Nora Anderson," Frederick Hafetz told jurors in his opening statements at Manhattan Supreme Court Friday.
Anderson was suspended from her elected position in December 2008 pending the outcome of the trial.
