The longtime secretary to former Newark mayor Sharpe James testified that James' affair with a city businesswoman was obvious to her and other City Hall staffers. James is accused in a federal corruption trial of abusing his office by steering nine city properties to the businesswoman, Tamika Riley, who bought them for $46,000 and then quickly sold them for $665,000. "My impression was that Tamika Riley was a girlfriend of the mayor's," said Rosemarie Posella in testimony Tuesday. She served as James' personal secretary for his entire 20-year tenure as mayor. Posella was to take the stand again Wednesday.

Defense lawyers for James and Riley do not deny that James, 72, had an extramarital affair with Riley, 38, but dispute its length.

Her "intimate personal relationship" with the mayor began in late April or early May 2002, and lasted to November 2002, Riley lawyer Gerald Krovatin told the jury in his opening statement on Monday.

Prosecutors, however, charged that the relationship spanned 2000 to 2006, and that the property sales took place from 2001 to 2005.

Posella said the affair began sometime after 1999, and hit a rough stretch in 2003, when the mayor would not take Riley's calls for six or seven months. The affair then resumed and continued at least until the mayor left office at the end of June 2006, she said.

During Monday's opening statements, James lawyer Thomas Ashley said James was not corrupt and sought only to rebuild his struggling city.

The trial is expected to last several months. Afterward, James is to be tried on charges he used city-issued credit cards to pay for $58,000 worth of personal expenses while he was mayor, including trips with several women other than his wife to Martha's Vineyard, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Rio de Janeiro.

James and Riley have pleaded innocent and are free on bail.

James was mayor from 1986 to 2006 before deciding not to seek a sixth term. He also served as a state senator from 1999 to January 2008, when he left office after not seeking re-election.

James faces five charges, including fraud and conspiracy. Riley faces those charges and eight others, including tax evasion.

Under federal advisory guidelines, he could face seven to eight years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.