The prosecution on Friday began framing its case against three Jersey City police officers accused of participating in an off-duty jobs conspiracy.

The charges against Lt. Kelly Chesler and retired Capt. Joseph Ascolese stem from off-duty traffic assignments in 2014 during Pulaski Skyway closures and Route 139 construction. Ascolese was in charge of the operation and Chesler was his executive officer.

Both are charged with falsifying time sheets for Officer Michael Maietti, who has since decided to cooperate and will testify against the others at trial. Officer Joseph Widejko is also expected to testify that he was paid for no-show shifts. Widejko was not charged.

Officer Michael O'Neil is charged with working two no-show off-duty jobs, which were awarded to pay him back for shelling out $200 to pay for damage to a vehicle involved in an accident with a police motorcycle, prosecutors say.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Stoma on Friday called former Jersey City Business Administrator Robert Kakoleski as the state's first witness. Kakoleski described the agreement between the state Department of Transportation and Jersey City, which established the off-duty traffic assignments during the road work.

Under the agreement, the police department was to provide up to 55 officers at specific posts between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. on weekdays to direct traffic, ensure pedestrian safety and enforce temporary and permanent parking restrictions, Kakoleski said.

The state was to reimburse the city $58 per hour worked by the officers, with $8 going to the city to cover the administration of the off-duty jobs, filing for reimbursements from the DOT and cutting checks to pay the officers. Stoma said that during a period of about four months, the off-duty work totaled some $1.6 million.

Kakoleski said the city was required to have "documents for the days the officers' worked, the hours they worked (and more information) and that was to be attached to the reimbursement form" sent by the city to the DOT.

The defense has claimed that the charges are farcical and that the assignment of the off-duty jobs and signing of the vouchers used to pay the officers was chaotic. One attorney said he went through documents related to the payments to officers and found 600 anomalies.

The defense attorneys also said the state would not be able to prove the vouchers were signed with the knowledge that the officers had not actually worked the assignments.

As a bench trial with no jury, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mirtha Ospina will decide whether the officers are guilty or not guilty. The request for a bench trial was made by the defense and accepted by the prosecution.

There are more than 250 names on the witness list, with the vast majority being police officers. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks. The defendants face 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted. The three defense attorneys are cross examining Kakoleski this afternoon. The trial will continue tomorrow morning.

The case is similar but separate from the federal investigation into falsified police time records that has led to a dozen guilty pleas, including by ex-police Chief Phil Zacche.

Zacche, who admitted stealing more than $20,000 related to a "no show" second job for the Jersey City Housing Authority, was sentenced to two years probation last month. His career spanned nearly four decades.