NEW HAVEN -- Ralph Crozier was described as the "do-everything lawyer" for a Naugatuck Valley oxycodone dealer.

"He handled his criminal cases, helped him start companies and got insurance settlements," charged Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale. "But Mr. Crozier went too far."

With that, the federal money-laundering trial of Crozier, a 63-year-old Seymour lawyer, began Tuesday before Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall and a 14-person jury.

Crozier, who has often described himself as a legal maverick, is accused of convincing Bruce Yazdzik, who was earning tens of thousands a week selling oxycodone, to invest $30,000 of his drug proceeds in a solar energy company.

The prosecutor claims Crozier later accepted another $11,000 from Yazdzik's mother, Debra Rost, during a meeting at the attorney's Seymour office. Rost agreed to wear a recording device for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in the hopes of reducing her son's 10-year prison sentence.

The separate charges against Crozier of conspiring to launder money and attempted money laundering each carry a 20-year prison term and a maximum $1 million fine.

Kale told the jury they would hear Crozier's own words on the tape recording telling Rost that Yazdzik, her son, had more hidden cash from his drug-dealing past.

Michael Hillis, Crozier's lawyer, painted a different picture of the often-controversial and outspoken defense attorney, who is a fixture in Naugatuck Valley and Greater Danbury state courts.

The Oxford resident once told Hearst Connecticut Media, about a case involving the alleged sexual abuse of a horse in Shelton, that "if this was a guy and a sheep in Litchfield ¦ this wouldn't have gotten nearly the media attention."

He also grabbed headlines for his disorderly conduct arrest after kissing a judicial marshal at the Waterbury Superior Court.

And on three occasions between 2005 and 2007, Crozier's law license was suspended.

Hillis, however, told the jury that the main reason Crozier is on trial is not for laundering Yazdzik's money, but for failing to assist federal authorities in their investigation of Waterbury corruption.

"Due to his inability to help, he was arrested and indicted," Hillis charged.

Hillis claims it was Crozier who convinced Yazdzik to contact Stamford police in April 2011. Yazdzik told Officer James Comstock that his supplier was traveling from Florida to Stamford with thousands of pills.

Police used the information, arrested the dealer in a Stamford hotel and seized 6,000 pills. They also launched a bigger probe with the DEA after the supplier agreed to cooperate.

Comstock, a 16-year veteran of the Stamford Police department, was the first witness called Tuesday, and he confirmed Yazdzik's assistance.

"Based on his cooperation, I was asked to write a letter to Waterbury (Senior Assistant) State's Attorney Patrick Griffin," Comstock told the court. The officer said he did that.

But that did not convince Yazdzik to get out of the drug trade. The dealer, known for his gaudy, diamond-studded jewelry and a Cadillac Escalade with a secret trap door, continued to deal and was arrested on federal charges. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute oxycodone, and is serving a 10-year federal prison term.

Yazdzik, who began testifying Tuesday, admitted that he hopes his cooperation in this case will lead to a reduction of his sentence. His testimony will continue when the trial resumes Wednesday.