Michael Joyce

PITTSBURGH — After a fender-bender in 2001, a Pennsylvania appellate judge claimed he was left in constant pain, unable to golf or swim or even at times hold a cup of coffee steady.

Yet the following year, prosecutors say, he was golfing regularly enough to keep up his handicap, piloted a plane at least 50 times and renewed his membership in an association of professional scuba divers.

Former state Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce, 59, goes on trial in federal court this week on fraud charges for allegedly exaggerating or faking neck and back injuries that netted him $440,000 from insurers.

Prosecutors say the proceeds helped him support a lifestyle he could not sustain on his $165,343-a-year salary, enabling him to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a hot tub, $6,000 worth of plastic surgery for the woman who would become his wife, and make big down payments on a new home in 2003 and Cessna airplane in 2004.

His attorneys said in court filings that just because he spent "his funds on items that some might consider lavish or unnecessary does not establish a motive to commit insurance fraud." They also say he was in fact hurt when a car going about 5 mph rear-ended his vehicle in August 2001, and that neck and back injuries can be real without being readily apparent to others.

A Republican from Erie County, Joyce was elected to the Superior Court in 1997. After a federal grand jury indicted him in 2007, he retired in January rather than seek another 10-year term on the state's second-highest appellate court.

He faces three counts of mail fraud, which each carry a sentence of up to 20 years, and six counts of money laundering, which each carry a sentence of up to 10 years. Each charge also carries a fine of up to $250,000.