TRENTON – Jurors in the criminal case against Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo left the courtroom a moment ago to begin deliberations in the bribery case against the embattled mayor.

Federal Court Judge Anne Thompson read jurors their instructions after they listened to hours of closing arguments from prosecutors and the mayor’s defense attorney.

Bencivengo is charged with accepting $12,400 in bribes in exchange for his official influence as mayor to help a former friend turned FBI informant retain her lucrative insurance contract with the township’s school district.

Jurors will deliberate on each of the five criminal counts Bencivengo was charged with by the federal government.

Thompson told jurors she expects deliberations to spill into tomorrow and told the three alternate jurors that she may ask them to return to the courthouse Tuesday.