A visibly uncomfortable New Hampshire man testified Tuesday about swapping naked photos of his blind wife and his own genitalia with a person he believed to be former state senate minority whip Nicholas Kettle in 2017.

WARWICK — A visibly uncomfortable New Hampshire man testified Tuesday about swapping photos of his naked, blind wife and his own genitalia with a person he believed to be the former state Senate minority whip, Nicholas Kettle, in 2017.

Zachary Brennan slumped at the witness stand, his head on one hand, the other clutching a Red Sox cap, as he told of someone he believed to be Kettle sending him eight photos of a naked woman. He, in turn, recalled sending photos of his own naked wife, whom prosecutors repeatedly identified as disabled, as well as trading photos of male genitalia, his own and Kettle's.

“He had brought up the threesome, but I don’t remember all the details,” Brennan said. He testified that he couldn’t remember his response.

Brennan, who was granted immunity from prosecution on Monday by Superior Court Presiding Justice Alice B. Gibney, was the first witness to testify in Kettle's trial for allegedly taking and then sending eight photos of his naked, then-longtime girlfriend without her consent.

Kettle, 28, last week rejected a plea agreement that would have spared him jail time, instead opting for a jury-waived trial before Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini. He faces up to three years in prison on each of the 10 video voyeurism counts, if convicted.

Brennan told the court that he had known Kettle since elementary school, when the two were in Scouting together, and that it was he who reached out to Kettle the day the images were sent.

"What was going on at the time?" Assistant Attorney General Shannon Signore asked. Brennan, who works in the insurance industry, recounted drinking as much as a handle of whiskey each night for months on end.

"A lot of stress at work caused me to drink," said Brennan, who said he has since sought the help of a counselor.

He recalled, too, the woman who was the subject of the images confronting him in a phone call in January 2018. He sent Kettle a text message asking why she was contacting him. Kettle, whose distinctive voice he recognized, responded by leaving a voicemail, he said.

In opening statements, Special Assistant Attorney General Owen Murphy told of Kettle taking the pictures surreptitiously in July 2017, while he and the woman, who he'd been dating for two years, vacationed at a hotel in New Hampshire. She discovered the exchange of texts and photos while searching his iPad after an overnight stay during the holidays at the house Kettle shared with his parents. Emotionally distraught, the woman later took a screen shot of the exchanges to the police, sparking an investigation, Murphy said.

Kettle later told two people that he took the photos without her consent, and told one that he would have to resign from the Senate, Murphy said.

Kettle was 19 when he was elected in 2010 and became the youngest senator in Rhode Island history when he took office in 2011. He resigned in the wake of the charges.

But Kettle's lawyer, Paul DiMaio, countered that the couple often engaged in exchanges and images, including one of Kettle in a chastity belt that she deleted just before she went to the police. Kettle exchanged the photos with Brennan not for sexual gratification but because "he thinks she's beautiful," DiMaio said.

Plus, he said, the woman was constantly communicating, often sexually in nature, with another man while she was dating Kettle in 2017.

He argued there was no expectation of privacy — as required under the video voyeurism law — in the hotel room the couple shared.

Kettle also faces two counts of extortion for allegedly extorting sex from a Senate page in 2011 shortly after he was elected. Kettle has denied the charges and is expected to be tried on those charges at a later date in Providence County Superior Court.

Procaccini earlier Tuesday let stand the 10 video voyeurism counts, striking down arguments that the charges, as written, were overly broad and too vague to put a reasonable person on notice that he or she was violating the law.

Kettle’s family members observed Tuesday’s proceedings, conferring with him about the case as plea negotiations continued right up to trial. DiMaio's vigorous objections to Signore's questioning brought smiles to their faces.