SHERMAN -- Laura Maczka’s position on new apartments near Richardson neighborhoods was clear during her successful run for mayor - we don’t need them, “period.”

Then she met an apartment developer.

Mark Jordan was younger, handsome and rich, federal prosecutors say. They had an affair. He lavished her with gifts and trips, according to prosecutors.

In exchange, she voted for zoning changes for his controversial Palisades mixed-use project along Central Expressway, which neighbors fiercely opposed due to its numerous apartments, her indictment says.

Mark Jordan received more than $45 million in economic development incentives from the city. And he gave her a high-paying job for which she wasn’t qualified and married her, according to federal prosecutors.

Those are allegations the government hopes to prove to a jury as the Plano couple’s bribery trial gets under way this week in Sherman, about an hour north of downtown Dallas. The trial began Monday morning with jury selection.

Defense attorneys Jeff Kearney and Dan Cogdell say the government has skewed the facts.

The zoning changes would have passed anyway without the former mayor’s vote, they said in court filings. The zoning case -- to expand the number of apartments in the Palisades project -- was approved in 2014 by a 5-2 vote.

Mark Jordan poses on the parking garage at his company headquarters in Richardson in August 2015. (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Mark Jordan was just helping out a friend, they said, who had medical bills and other expenses. And then he fell in love with her, the attorneys said.

Her relationship with Mark Jordan is expected to play a significant role during the bribery trial. Based on questions asked Monday during jury selection, defense attorneys are likely to argue that the defendants’ motivations were linked to a romantic, not a corrupt, relationship.

“They don’t know that I’m dating her. They don’t know that we’re getting married,” Mark Jordan told a witness in a recording in October 2015. “They don’t know that I love her.”

The seven-count indictment filed last year accuses Laura Jordan, 54, and Mark Jordan, 52, both of Plano, of honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery, and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in federal prison.

Mark Jordan paid her over $18,000 in cash and $40,000 by check for her votes, according to the indictment. He also paid for over $24,000 in renovations to her home as well as for luxury vacations, the indictment said.

Former Richardson Mayor Laura Jordan (Laura Maczka) and Mark Jordan arrive for a bribery trial at Paul Brown Federal Building United States Courthouse in Sherman, Texas on Tuesday, February 12, 2019. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Quid pro quo?

Laura Jordan served as Richardson’s mayor from May 2013 through April 2015 before stepping down after winning a second term.

She and Mark Jordan “secretly communicated and coordinated with each other” about his Palisades project in November 2013, shortly before the Richardson City Council’s first votes on the zoning changes he wanted, the indictment said.

Laura Jordan, for example, sent an email to Mark Jordan in November 2013 about the proposed zoning changes that said: “Good thing I had such a fun afternoon yesterday. Because last night the prairie creek mob hit me hard! You were probably enjoying barbecue and chillaxing. I was taking bullets for you!” the indictment says.

The Prairie Creek neighborhood in Richardson was opposed to the proposed zoning changes.

Former Richardson Mayor Laura Maczka spoke during the grand opening of the Heights Family Aquatic Center, on July 12, 2013 in Richardson. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

But Laura Jordan later voted in favor of those zoning changes that made possible Mark Jordan's sprawling Palisades project despite an "overwhelming number of citizens" who opposed the plan, the indictment says.

Laura Jordan was unlicensed and “wholly unqualified” for the leasing agent job Mark Jordan gave her, and it was illegal under Texas law for her to do such work without a license, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Visosky in court documents.

Her salary was $150,000 -- more than twice what the previous employee made -- with a $15,000 signing bonus, the indictment said.

“Businessmen do not normally hire untrained, unqualified neophytes to do work for them illegally; that Jordan did so is evidence of corrupt intent,” Viosky wrote in the court filing.

Sex benefit?

Prosecutors say sex was another thing of value the former mayor received from the developer in exchange for her official actions.

Defense attorneys have objected to that allegation, saying “sexual services” cannot be given a value in the case.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher A. Eason said there’s no legal requirement that something of value in a bribery context be given a monetary amount. He said the timing of their “corrupt affair” is “central to the charges” in the case.

“The government intends to introduce evidence that Maczka placed a high value on the time and attention of Jordan, an attractive, younger and very wealthy man,” Eason said in a court filing.

Cleared by the city

Neither defendant disclosed to the city their work together on the zoning changes nor the benefits the former mayor received from it, prosecutors said. And Laura Jordan denied she had a conflict of interest related to the approval of the rezoning case -- even after the release of leaked emails hinting at her personal relationship with the developer.

A three-week investigation by the city in 2015 concluded there was no evidence that Laura Jordan or the City Council at the time violated state law or city ethics rules when it approved the zoning change for Mark Jordan's Palisades project.

Construction on the Palisades Central project in Richardson is seen in an aerial view March 23, 2017, in Richardson. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

But Eason said the defendants’ statements to the investigator contained “numerous lies and misrepresentations.” The lies were part of couple’s attempts to “conceal their true corrupt relationship,” he said.

But the defense says the government has it wrong. Laura Jordan underwent 12 weeks of treatment for skin cancer in January 2015, her lawyer at the time, James Shepherd, said in a letter to the city’s investigator.

She was recently divorced and took the job with Mark Jordan’s Sooner Management that March because she needed health insurance, Shepherd said.

Laura Jordan ran unopposed in the May 2015 election. Said later said she would not serve her second term in office, but would instead focus on "my family, my health, and my professional career."