SPRINGFIELD - Jurors in the extortion and money-laundering trial of former Lee Police Chief Joseph Buffis came back from two hours of deliberations without returning a verdict on Thursday.

The panel began mulling the case around 2 p.m. after more than two weeks of testimony in U.S. District Court. Buffis is charged in connection with allegedly fleecing $55,000 from the Laliberte Toy Fund, a police-sponsored Christmas charity for needy children, to pay his personal debts.

The 34-year veteran of the police force also is accused of extorting $4,000 from two former Lee innkeepers caught up in a prostitution sting in 2012. The government alleges Buffis insisted the couple cut a check in exchange for shelving the investigation, and the money quickly ended up in his own pocket.

Buffis' defense lawyer, Lori Levinson, argued during closing arguments that her client was not a thief, but a real life "Miracle on 34th Street" Santa Claus who was persecuted for being a benevolent figure in a small town. During his own testimony over two days on the witness stand, Buffis testified that he purchased toys for the charity with out-of-pocket cash all year, and reimbursed himself when donations started rolling in during the holidays.

"No one believed him; they thought he was a fraud," Levinson said of the movie character. "He was persecuted for being a fraud; he was prosecuted for being a fraud ... and then it turned out that he really was Santa Claus. The evidence clearly showed you in this case that Joe Buffis was Santa in the small town of Lee for 30-plus years."

Prosecutors countered that the defendant was hardly a philanthropist, and used the charity to line his own bank accounts to stave off financial ruin.

"Really the defendant was much more like the Grinch who stole Christmas," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow told jurors during his closing statement.

The panel of eight women and four men will resume deliberations Friday morning.