PITTSBURGH — Several Pennsylvania judges appeared in a federal courtroom Monday to defend one of their own: retired Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce.

Joyce, 59, is being tried on mail fraud and money laundering charges for allegedly scamming insurance companies out of $440,000 by faking or exaggerating neck and back injuries from a 2001 fender bender.

The defense contends the injuries were legitimate or that Joyce truly believed they were. In either case, they say he's innocent.

Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, Superior Court President Judge Kate Ford Elliott and Erie County Common Pleas Judge Michael Dunlavey all testified for the defense Monday. Each remembered Joyce complaining of back and neck pain since the August 2001 accident.

"I believe that he complained a lot about his back," Ford Elliott said. "It was generally believed by me, and I guess by others, that he had a back problem."

Joyce's attorneys contend the traffic accident aggravated spinal fusion surgery Joyce had on his neck in the early 1990s. They argue the pain caused Joyce to curtail, though not halt, his active lifestyle, which included scuba diving, golfing, inline skating and weightlifting. They also introduced medical testimony suggesting Joyce's accident and injuries were more severe than the government claims.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold contends Joyce's car was rear-ended at 2 to 3 mph. Prosecutors say, after the accident, Joyce golfed regularly, piloted a plane at least 50 times and renewed his membership in an association of professional scuba divers, actions that show his injuries weren't as severe as he claimed.

Trabold contends Joyce faked the injuries to support a lifestyle he could not sustain on his $165,343-a-year salary, including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a hot tub, $6,000 worth of plastic surgery for the woman who is now his wife, and down payments on a new home and Cessna airplane.