When an immigration judge wanted to meet for coffee with refugee claimant Ji Hye Kim, her boyfriend was immediately suspicious.

Brad Tripp thought it could mean only one thing: That the judge, who had presided at her refugee hearing, wanted to have sex with her.

So Tripp talked Kim into carrying a hidden digital recorder and microphone to the meeting while he would film it from a distance.

"I felt that we needed to record this meeting to protect Ji Hye's rights to a fair hearing," Tripp, 34, testified at a trial for Steve Ellis, the former immigration judge.

Ellis, 50, once a city of Toronto councillor, has pleaded not guilty to breach of trust and an Immigration and Refugee Protection Act charge of bribery.

Tripp said he accompanied Kim, a South Korean whom he has since married, to her refugee hearing on July 17, 2006, but sat outside.

Ellis reserved his decision.

On Sept. 13, Tripp said, Kim came home and told him Ellis had dropped by the Jarvis St. restaurant where she worked as a waitress. "I just thought it was a coincidence," Tripp told prosecutor Lynda Trefler.

On Sept. 22, Kim called from the restaurant and said Ellis was there again, and that she wanted to ask him about her case.

"I told her it was probably not a very good idea," Tripp said, adding that he thinks Kim ignored the advice.

When Kim told Tripp that Ellis wanted to meet her for coffee four days later, Tripp was immediately suspicious and hatched a plan.

He borrowed a camera from work and, knowing he would not get close enough to the meeting to pick up sound, bought a digital recorder and microphone for Kim to hide in her clothes during the meeting.

They chose the patio of a coffee shop on Bloor St. W., a block east of Bathurst. "The outdoor patio made it easy to record the video from across the street," Tripp said.

On Sept. 26, the day of the meeting, Tripp rented an SUV.

He parked across the street from the patio, and waited. "I had a virtually unobstructed view," he said. Ellis arrived at around 7 p.m. and Tripp started recording, only stopping at 7:33 p.m. when it got dark.

Several minutes later, Tripp saw Ellis and Kim walk away from the restaurant and noticed Ellis kiss Kim on the cheek.

Kim phoned shortly after.

"I asked her if she was okay," Tripp testified. "She was very stressed and tense and she didn't want to talk about it."

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That night he synchronized the audio and video on the tapes.

The tape, played in court, shows Ellis telling Kim he wants to be her friend, and that he was having second thoughts about rejecting her refugee claim. "I'm not going to fall in love with you, don't worry about that," Ellis tells her in the video.

The trial resumes March 8.