The Winston-Salem Journal reports:

The trial of Ernie Pitt began yesterday with lawyers presenting two starkly different versions of Pitt, the former chairman of the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem.

Pitt, as described by Frank Chut, an assistant U.S. attorney, is a man who knew he had a conflict of interest and still went ahead with a HAWS land deal that benefited him personally and later crippled the housing authority. “He had a duty of honest service to the housing authority,” Chut said. “The housing authority is stuck to this day with this land.”

Pitt faces six charges: one count of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and three counts of money laundering. He is accused of making $84,000 by fraudulently arranging for HAWS to buy a development called Lansing Ridge from his company at a steep markup.

Pitt’s attorneys, Mike Grace and Chris Clifton, said that the land deal was part of a pattern, over more than two decades, of Pitt doing what he could to improve the economic picture of the city’s east side.