FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A convicted felon who smoked marijuana and sniffed cocaine with a teenager at the center of the Beth Friedman statutory rape case testified Monday that the alleged victim offered to pay him to lie in court about his former teacher.

Jonathan Tucker, 21, conceded on cross-examination that he has used at least four other aliases and lied to police about his real name but was adamant that his former friend, Donald Vaden, tried to recruit him to testify against Friedman. Tucker said that he and Vaden were driving around one night in 1996 or 1997 when Vaden made the alleged offer.

"He asked me if he paid me money would I go to court and say I saw them kissing and stuff, and flirting," Tucker testified.

According to Tucker, Donald Vaden explained that he and his mother, Grisel Vaden, were going to sue Friedman. Vaden never sued Friedman, but his allegations of sex with the now 42-year-old woman could land her in prison for many years if the jury finds her guilty of the most-serious felony charges against her.

The trial in Broward County Circuit Court entered its third week Monday.

Tucker testified for Friedman's defense lawyer that he was watching a news report about the trial recently and heard Donald Vaden's voice. Tucker, who was being held at the Broward County Jail on a probation violation at the time, said he came forward because he did not want to see Friedman get into trouble because of Vaden.

"I seen something going bad and I wanted to help," Tucker said.

Tucker's testimony was yet another bizarre twist in a case that has taken more than its share of sudden turns. Last week, a prosecution witness who says he watched Friedman perform oral sex on Vaden admitted that some of his past testimony was false. The witness's version of where the incident occurred was also different from Vaden's account.

In addition to offering a financial motive for Vaden's testimony, Tucker testified that prosecution witness Grisel Vaden was involved in a shakedown of Friedman. Grisel Vaden yelled at her son after the sex allegations went public that he was going to "ruin everything" by getting arrested for stealing a truck, Tucker said.

Grisel Vaden previously testified that she did not believe her son's claims that he was having oral sex with Friedman until he told her in June 1999 that Friedman offered him $25,000 to get her pregnant. Grisel Vaden denied any conspiracy.

Two months after Grisel Vaden and her ex-husband made a formal complaint to police about Friedman, Donald Vaden and Tucker began pointing the finger at each other over the theft of a truck. Prosecutor Stacey Honowitz used a police report that detailed the cross accusations in an effort to show that Tucker has a two-year-old ax to grind.

Honowitz also underscored for the jury Tucker's testimony that he sometimes uses the aliases John Tucker, Giovanni Fundora and other variations.

'A genuinely nice person'

The corridor outside Judge Stanton Kaplan's courtroom was jammed Monday with character witnesses for Friedman.

The first one, Jason Bucci, testified that he often went out with Friedman alone and she never made a pass at him. At the time, Bucci was 17 years old and Friedman was approaching 40. Bucci, now a 23-year-old waiter in Charlotte, N.C., said he never knew Friedman to use alcohol or drugs — in contrast to the testimony of Donald Vaden — during trips to ballgames and concerts.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Bucci said that after he and Friedman became friends, she became close with his parents. Honowitz was apparently trying to show the jury that Vaden's similar testimony of his blossoming relationship with Friedman was true.

Another character witness, 21-year-old college student Debbie Induisi, said she was so shocked to learn that Friedman was on trial for statutory rape that she immediately e-mailed a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald two weeks ago. "I wrote the letter because I wanted everyone to know, I wanted the world to know ... that she was a genuinely nice person," Induisi said. "She was a very cool teacher. She was at the students' level."

Defense lawyer David Bogenschutz called the character witnesses to show the jury that Friedman often went out of her way to help students and sometimes formed friendships with them. Bucci, for example, testified that Friedman recently accompanied him to court on a marijuana possession charge and helped him pay the fine.

Another witness, former substitute teacher Mary Huddleston Waxman, testified that Friedman would have confided in her if she was having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. "If that were happening, I would have known about it," Huddleston Waxman said.

Corey Diana, who was friends with Friedman for nearly 30 years, also testified that Friedman never confided that anything improper or sexual was occurring between her and Vaden.

"She knows my whole life story and I know her whole life story," said Diana, who met Friedman in elementary school.

"Did she ever tell you she was having sexual relations with Donald Vaden?" Bogenschutz asked.

Diana said Friedman did not say anything like that.

Diana also testified that she is letting her son's 13-year-old friend stay with her and sees nothing wrong with that. Honowitz responded by asking the witness if she saw anything wrong with accompanying teenagers out until 3 a.m., as Vaden and other witnesses testified Friedman had done.

Testifying to Friedman's character, Diana noted that the defendant has not worked since the allegations surfaced in 1999 but has been volunteering in the burn and neonatal units at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

In his opening statement Friday, Bogenschutz described Friedman as a "nurturing" teacher who was not afraid to take chances. Now he's trying to prove that she took a chance on the wrong student when she attempted to mentor Donald Vaden.

For the first time since jury selection, Friedman used a tissue Monday to dab tears from her eyes.

Bogenschutz is expected to call a few more witnesses Tuesday afternoon and then rest. Closing arguments are expected Wednesday. The trial is being broadcast on Court TV.