TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The creator of "The Sopranos" testified Tuesday that he wanted to cry when he learned in 2002 he was being sued by a former municipal judge who wanted credit for his role in the creation of the hit mob drama.

Chase said he heard about the lawsuit while doing post-production work on the series in Los Angeles.

"You're a grown man; you're not supposed to cry," he testified in federal court. "But I felt like crying."

Chase, who grew up in northern New Jersey, said the project was very personal to him.

"'The Sopranos' was me, my mother, my uncles," he said. "It was my life."

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Chase said that he had always wanted to be original and that now someone he had tried to help was trying to take credit.

"It made me sick, absolutely sick," Chase said.

A jury will determine whether Robert Baer should be paid for services provided in 1995 during Chase's development of "The Sopranos" pilot. The defense wrapped up its case on Tuesday, and closing arguments are to be heard on Wednesday.

Chase said he wanted help to understand the business aspect of organized crime for an idea he had for a television show about a mob boss in therapy. He said he wanted to create a "satire of American corporate life" and wanted to learn what new techniques the mob was using.

"I never understood the money," he testified Tuesday in federal court in Trenton. "Who keeps the records?"

Chase said he hoped to gain insight from Baer, a former prosecutor and aspiring writer. Baer claims he provided services -- arranging meetings with police and prosecutors during a three-day tour of New Jersey mob sites in 1995 and subsequent conversations -- that sparked ideas for what became the hit HBO mob drama.

During testimony that lasted for more than two hours, Chase said he had been interested in the mob since watching "The Untouchables" television series as a child with his father.

Chase testified that he wanted to center a television series on a man who lives in the suburbs with two troublesome children, money problems, and a mid-life crisis and is seeking help from therapy. The twist: he's also a mobster.

Chase said that after the broadcast networks passed on the show, he began rewriting his original script in 1997 hoping that HBO would pick it up. He said he didn't ask Baer for help then because Baer acknowledged he wasn't a mob expert.

Chase turned instead to a prosecutor in Manhattan, Dan Castleman, who had just been quoted about the mob in The New York Times. Castleman testified Tuesday that he was never paid for his technical advice during the writing of the pilot but received payment for subsequent episodes.

Chase's final witness was Jake Jacobson, an attorney who spent more than 20 years at Paramount in television development and said he oversaw the production of more than 100 pilots.

Jacobson testified that it is not customary in the business for someone to receive payment for the type of services that Baer provided, and that the value of Baer's services was zero.

Both Chase and Baer testified that Baer declined Chase's offer of payment three times. Baer said Chase agreed to "take care of him" if the show was a hit.

Chase said he tried to pay Baer because he was unemployed, having recently left his job as an assistant prosecutor and Chase understood the difficulty of breaking into the screenwriting business.

He testified Baer told him the tour would be helpful to him, too, because he could learn about the writing business from Chase.