RALEIGH - The alleged crimes of former state Rep. Thomas E. Wright were aired publicly for the third time Tuesday, as detailed testimony began at his trial on criminal fraud charges.

Among the witnesses were a former state health official and a bank loan officer, both of whom testified at a hearing last month before a special House ethics panel that went on to recommend that Wright be kicked out of office.

That panel considered the same evidence that led the State Board of Elections last year to refer Wright's case to prosecutors.

But Wright's lawyer said late Tuesday that he expected at least one new witness in the trial: Wright himself.

Wright is accused of fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 loan and pocketing $8,900 in corporate contributions meant for a health foundation he led in Wilmington. The Wilmington Democrat could be sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison if he is convicted on all four counts of felony fraud.

Last month, the full House voted 109-5 to accept the ethics panel's recommendation and boot Wright from office.

The former state official, Torlen Wade, testified again that while chief of the state Office of Rural Health in 2002, he wrote a bogus letter on Wright's behalf. Prosecutors argue that Wright, an eight-term lawmaker, used the letter to take out a loan.

Wade testified that he was pressured by Wright, whom he had known for some time, to write that the state was providing a $150,000 grant to help Wright buy a building through his Community's Health Foundation. The building was to house a museum commemorating the 1898 Wilmington race riots. No such grant existed, Wade said.

Wade said he only wrote the letter because Wright was a member of the General Assembly.

"It was a very important project to Representative Wright," Wade told Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby. "He was very, very insistent about it."

Ronnie Burbank, who worked at the Wilmington bank that approved the loan, also repeated testimony originally offered to the ethics panel. Burbank told the court it was fair to say the bank would not have made the loan if he had known the letter was false.

The loan was based on the assurance that Wright would receive grant money of some kind to pay it off, Burbank said.

The grant money never arrived, and the loan went into default.

During cross-examination, Wright attorney Douglas Harris pointed to the loan closing statement, which noted that Wright didn't receive anything personally from the loan. Harris also said the bank got its money back when it foreclosed on the building.

Willoughby said he expected to wrap up his case today.

Wright has denied the allegations and is challenging his expulsion from the House.

Harris said after court Tuesday that Wright would take the stand in his own defense.