REDWOOD CITY — Prosecutors painted a former chancellor of the San Mateo County Community College District as greedy, claiming that he accepted lavish gifts and travel in exchange for directing lucrative construction contract to his friends’ firms, while his defense presented him as a selfless public servant innocent of most of the charges levied against him as a trial that is expected to last several months began.

The attorneys presented the overviews of their arguments Wednesday to a jury that will consider 27 charges of tax code violations, misuse of public funds, conflict of interest, perjury and embezzlement against Ron Galatolo — bridging actions taken in both a private capacity and as a public official. He was indicted by a grand jury last year after months of delays in preliminary

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