( CNN ) -- Closed courtrooms . No laptops , phones or Wi-Fi . Bathrooms closed off by marshals . The corruption trial of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin cranks up Monday with a federal judge imposing tough rules on spectators and reporters during jury selection . In an order issued last week , U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan imposed those restrictions because of concerns that courtroom rules `` may not be respected '' by some unnamed miscreants . Nagin 's pleas for federal help for his flooded city caught the nation 's attention in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . Now out of office , he 's pleaded not guilty to federal charges of bribery , money laundering , fraud and filing false tax returns . Prosecutors accused him of being at the center of `` a bribery and kickback scheme '' in which he allegedly received checks , cash , wire transfers , personal services and free travel from businessmen seeking contracts and favorable treatment from the city . After preliminary questioning , some jurors will be quizzed behind closed doors , Berrigan ordered . Electronic devices have been barred from the courtroom , and the nearby restrooms on the fifth floor of the courthouse `` will be closed to all members of the media and public during voir dire proceedings , '' she wrote . Those restrictions may be lifted `` after the jury is sworn and in the event the court regains confidence that there will be full compliance with its orders by the media and public , '' she added . Prosecutors accuse Nagin of taking more than $ 200,000 in bribes , while his family members allegedly received a vacation in Hawaii ; first-class airfare to Jamaica ; private jet travel and a limousine for New York City ; and cellular phone service . In exchange , businesses that coughed up cash for Nagin and his family won more than $ 5 million in city contracts , according to an indictment brought in January 2013 . Two businessmen named in the charges have pleaded guilty to making payoffs and are cooperating with prosecutors . A third was found guilty of bribing two Nagin staffers , while another admitted to paying kickbacks to the sheriff of nearby Plaquemines Parish after winning a project management contract there . But Ashleigh Merchant , a Georgia defense lawyer and legal observer , told CNN , `` Corruption is still very hard to prove . '' In most businesses , Merchant said , `` You 're going to give the work to who you know , who you trust , who you perhaps took a family vacation with . The issue is going to be the testimony of those people , as to whether or not they expected to get something back in return for taking the family on vacation . '' And if prosecutors can show that Nagin promised city business in exchange for their favors , `` Then he 's done , '' she said . Nagin sought to have the charges dismissed in October after another federal judge blasted what he called the `` grotesque '' misconduct of prosecutors in the post-Katrina shootings of unarmed civilians by police at the Danziger Bridge . The judge tossed out the convictions of five cashiered cops after ruling that members of the U.S. attorney 's office tainted their 2011 trial by anonymously posting `` egregious and inflammatory '' comments at online news sites . Nagin argued that he was the target of the same underground effort , citing `` a continuum of perjorative statements and demeaning racial epithets '' aimed at him . The U.S. attorney 's office said none of the prosecutors involved in the Danziger Bridge case played a role in the Nagin investigation , and Berrigan denied Nagin 's motion . The onetime cable-television executive was elected mayor in 2002 and was in office when the massive Katrina slammed ashore just east of New Orleans on August 29 , 2005 . The storm flooded more than three-fourths of the low-lying city and left more than 1,800 dead , most of them in across Louisiana . Supporters credited Nagin 's sometimes-profane demands for aid from Washington with helping reveal the botched federal response to the storm -- a fiasco that embarrassed the George W. Bush administration and led to billions of federal dollars being poured into Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts . But he also had his critics : A congressional committee criticized him for delaying evacuation orders , and his frantic description of post-storm New Orleans as a violent wasteland with up to 10,000 dead turned out to be greatly exaggerated . As he sought re-election in 2006 , with much of the city 's African-American population displaced by storm damage , he was blasted for insisting that New Orleans would remain a `` chocolate '' city . He won a second term despite the controversies , but left office in mid-2010 with approval ratings in the cellar . Afterward , he told CNN his career in public office was over : `` I have given my pound of flesh , '' he said .
Tight rules for public as jury selection starts for ex-New Orleans mayor . Ray Nagin has pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and fraud charges . Prosecutors say he took more than $ 200,000 in bribes from city contractors . `` Corruption is still very hard to prove , '' lawyer tells CNN .