Mr. Eagen showed no emotion when senior Luzerne County Magistrate Leonard Harvey declared, after listening to more than seven hours of testimony, that he found the government had presented sufficient evidence to send the charges to trial.

The former judges attorney, William Costopoulos, was repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to attack the credibility of government witnesses, especially Mr. Eagens chief accuser, Philip Bosha.

Mr. Bosha, a former Scranton insurance executive, testified he duked the judge five times, meaning he made five cash payments to Mr. Eagen to reward the former judge for appointing him guardianship of the estates of elderly persons declared incompetent by the court. Mr. Eagen was Orphans Court judge at the time.

Mr. Bosha said he made the payments, which totaled $1,850 from the spring of 1993 to the fall of 1994. Four were given to the judge in his chambers. The fifth he left on the kitchen table in the home of an elderly Archbald woman.

Mr. Bosha said Mr. Eagen did not solicit the payments. They were all cash and were contained in white envelopes. In each instance, Mr. Bosha said he simply left the envelopes containing the money on a desk or table and the former judge picked up the envelopes without commenting.

Mr. Bosha said he stopped making the payments when Mr. Eagen was removed as orphans court judge and no longer in a position to appoint him guardian of estates.

Mr. Costopoulos managed to get Mr. Bosha to admit that, in initial interviews with authorities, he denied making any payments to Mr. Eagen. It wasnt until April of 1997 when he faced charges in federal as well as Wyoming County court that he told his attorney, Harold Kane, about the payments.

Under cross-examination, Mr. Bosha also conceded that he may have denied making payments to Mr. Eagen to a long list of people read off by attorney Costopoulos.

In addition to the bribery charges, Magistrate Harvey ordered obstruction of justice, making unsworn falsification and false reports to authorities, tampering with public records and criminal conspiracy charges held for trial.

The obstruction charge alleges Mr. Eagen repeatedly made attempts to obtain from members of the district attorneys staff, including District Attorney Michael Barrasse himself, information about the county grand jury investigation of Mr. Bosha and others.

Mr. Barrasse said the former judge questioned him at least 10 times about the grand jury, asking what it is doing, when the investigation is going to be over and when he would be interviewed about it.

On at least one occasion, Mr. Barrasse said Mr. Eagen told him Mr. Bosha and Ronald Worobey, a former attorney who frequently served as counsel on estates on which Mr. Bosha served as guardian, should commit suicide to prevent the probe from investigation from continuing.

A lot of things are at stake here, Mr. Barrasse quoted the former judge as telling him. Mr. Eagen went on to say that if anything should happen to him it would effect a lot of families. Mr. Barrasse said the former judge was referring to families of people who worked for him.

Mr. Bosha said Mr. Eagen also suggested to him that he commit suicide so he would not be able to talk.

With all this going on, Mr. Bosha said the former judge told him, I wouldnt be surprised if there are not suicides. Mr. Bosha said Mr. Eagen then told him to picture how dreadful it would be if he is arrested to walk across the street to the county courthouse with all the news media and cameras in front of him.

Did you take this to mean he was suggesting you commit suicide? Mr. Costopoulos asked Mr. Bosha.

Yes I did, the witness said.

Mr. Bosha also quoted the former judge as saying, Oh ... this is not good, when he informed him that county, state and federal agents had seized his records.

Mr. Eagen then advised him to Sit tight and shut up, Mr. Bosha said.

Mr. Costopoulos suggested that leaks coming out the grand jury about the investigation was a reason for his clients concern about the investigation. He further suggested that the judges interest in seeing the investigation end was he was to run for retention in November of 1997. Mr. Eagen lost the retention election.