PITTSBURGH (AP) — Federal prosecutors contend that a celebrity pathologist used public resources while working as Allegheny County medical examiner and coroner to further his multimillion-dollar private practice.

Cyril Wecht has denied wrongdoing, and his attorneys have alleged the charges against Wecht are politically motivated. The two sides were expected to make their opening arguments in the case Monday in Pennsylvania’s Western District Court.

Wecht, 76, is charged with 41 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud and theft. He resigned his Allegheny County post after he was indicted in January 2006.

Wecht, famous for his investigations in the cases of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and others, remains a consultant, pundit and expert on high-profile cases. He also conducts autopsies-for-hire in several Pennsylvania counties.

This is not the first time Wecht has had to defend himself against such allegations. He successfully defended himself in the early 1980s when he was charged with using county morgue employees to examine slides for his private practice.

The case led to his ouster, although he would later settle a related suit for $200,000 and return in 1996 to serve a second 10-year stint as coroner. He resigned after he was indicted in January 2006.

The current trial is expected to last about two months.

Prosecutors plan to prove that Wecht used county resources in his private business; defrauded private clients with bogus travel invoices; and submitted falsified mileage receipts to surrounding counties. His attorneys say the charges are either false or amount to minor infractions, such as the improper use of fax machines.

Although the initial indictment charged 84 counts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings recently dropped more than half of them to “streamline” the case for the jury. Wecht’s attorneys called the gutted indictment signs of a rush to judgment and shoddy investigating.

In the two years since the charges were filed, Wecht’s attorneys have attacked prosecutors for their alleged political biases, although District Judge Arthur Schwab won’t allow them to argue political motives to the jury.

They have even accused Schwab of bias. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for a new judge while chiding Schwab for admitting 300,000 pages of documents into evidence over the objections of the defense.

Wecht, meanwhile, continues to be in demand as both a speaker and consultant. Prosecutors say his private practice grossed nearly $9 million from 1997 through 2004.

Even while under indictment, he has consulted on the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son, Daniel; the death of the New York City public advocate’s relative at the Phoenix airport; and the reported suicide of the first black mayor-elect in the mostly white town of Westlake, La.