Talk to Ralph Crozier long enough and he'll tell you he's been called many things in his life -- outspoken, maverick, liar, and even briefly, inmate.

"Absolutely not," Crozier repeatedly told Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall, a 14-member jury, and even the news media on Monday.

Crozier, a 63-year-old Seymour lawyer, has been on trial the past four days in federal court in New Haven. He is accused on separate charges of conspiring to launder money and attempting to launder money for Bruce Yazdzik, a convicted Naugatuck Valley oxycodone dealer.

The charges each carry a maximum 20-year prison term -- significantly longer than the 93 days Crozier did in 2010 on a driving while under the influence charge and for violating his probation.

As a trial attorney, Crozier has argued cases in Danbury and represented such companies as AWD and DWD, part of the defunct garbage empire of convicted felon James Galante.

Crozier, who has practiced law for 38 years minus the three times his license was suspended, said he believes the money laundering charges stem from his inability to assist federal agents with their probe of corruption in Waterbury.

When the case resumes Tuesday, Crozier, who lives in Oxford, will continue testifying under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale.

For much of the day Monday, Crozier answered questions from Michael Hillis, his lawyer. At least an hour was spent with Crozier explaining his firm's accounting practices.

Hillis zeroed in on every document that contained a reference to Yazdzik's payments.

Yazdzik, who is serving a 10-year federal prison term for dealing oxycodone, testified last week that he agreed to cooperate in the hope of reducing that sentence. Yazdzik told the jury he sought Crozier's help in 2010 to have his state probation terminated so he could move out of Connecticut with his son and newly divorced sister and begin a new life. Yazdzik said he was making as much as $70,000 a week dealing tens of thousands of pills flown in from Florida.

He began cooperating by turning in a dealer to Stamford police. The dealer was arrested, cooperated and launched a bigger probe which led to arrests of three federal Transportation Security Administration officers, a Westchester County police officer and a Florida state police trooper.

Yazdzik also claimed Crozier assisted him in laundering $30,000 in cash by helping him invest in Brightside Solar, a Seymour-based solar energy company.

"When did Bruce Yazdzik give you $30,000 cash?" Hillis asked Crozier.

"That's total rubbish," the lawyer said. "It never happened."

Crozier claimed all he did was review a contract Yazdzik signed with Brightside. Under the terms of the contract, Yazdzik could seek 10 percent ownership in the company within 11 months or declare the money a loan.

As to the probation termination case, Crozier said he charged Yazdzik $8,000, but later reduced the fee to $3,000. He said his work included obtaining a cooperation letter from Stamford Police Officer James Comstock, calling the DEA and FBI for a similar letter to no avail and corresponding with Waterbury Senior State's Attorney Patrick Griffin.

And despite claiming to go straight, Yazdzik continued dealing and landed in federal prison. That's when he decided to renounce Crozier.

Even his mother, Debra Rost, agreed to help by recording two conversations with Crozier in his office for the DEA. During the second conversation, she brought $11,000, which she told Crozier her son left hidden in a basement.

"I took the money. I gave her a receipt written to her son and told her I would put it in an account for him," he said. "If one was to launder money, they wouldn't put everything in the person's name ... and give them a receipt."

Still, within minutes of accepting the bag, Hillis said 15 federal agents broke into the office, threw Crozier on the ground and handcuffed him.