urveillance tapes made last year in a Brooklyn matrimonial judge's office and played publicly by prosecutors for the first time yesterday show the judge, Gerald P. Garson, offering a lawyer detailed instructions on how to argue a case before him. He also assures the lawyer that if he follows them, "The worst possible scenario is a win."

In the tapes, Justice Garson tells the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, that he will award his client in a divorce case the rights to a house and uses an expletive to describe how the decision would affect the client's estranged wife. Justice Garson also dictates to Mr. Siminovsky the exact language he should use in a memo to the judge and urges him to charge his client extra for the memo.

The tapes were played yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in the criminal trial of Justice Garson's former clerk and a court officer, who are charged with taking bribes to steer Mr. Siminovsky's cases to Justice Garson.

Justice Garson himself has been charged with accepting cash, cigars and dozens of meals from Mr. Siminovsky in return for giving him the edge in divorce cases and for referring clients to him. His case will not come to trial until next year at the earliest, as prosecutors are appealing the dismissal of some of the charges against him.

Prosecutors say they played the tapes yesterday in the case against the clerk, Paul Sarnell, and the officer, Louis Salerno, to show the jury how closely Mr. Garson and Mr. Siminovsky were working.

The tapes, peppered with profanity and ethnic slurs and including several other court employees, depict a courthouse culture that appears at best indifferent to conflicts of interest if not outright collusion.

Justice Garson's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said yesterday that the tape segments and the transcripts of them released by the prosecutors had been unfairly excerpted from hundreds of hours of tape made in Justice Garson's robing room.

"There are many other tapes surrounding this tape," Mr. Fischetti said. "During the trial, you will see many other tapes that we are going to put into evidence that will put an entirely different slant on things."

The Brooklyn district attorney's office has described the tapes as the centerpiece of its case against Justice Garson largely because they show him accepting $1,000 cash and a $250 box of cigars in his office from Mr. Siminovsky, who by then was cooperating with prosecutors and who now faces no charges.

While those tapes were also shown yesterday, it was a tape made on Feb. 5, 2003, before Mr. Siminovsky was recruited, that shows what appears to be blatant case-rigging.

The tape shows the two men discussing a case in which Mr. Siminovsky represented a man named Avraham Levi, who was suing his wife for divorce. The judge says of the house the couple lived in, "I'll award him exclusive use on it."

Justice Garson later adds: "You're in good shape. You're a winner either way.'' He adds that the client does not deserve the favorable ruling.

In a tape made a month later, after Mr. Siminovsky began cooperating with investigators, Justice Garson feeds him language to use in the memo in the case. "The only evidence in this case is the deed,'' Justice Garson dictates.

The judge interrupts himself, then continues: "The house has been evaluated at --''

"Six-fifty," Mr. Siminovsky fills in.

"Whatever the hell it is," the judge says, continuing: "During the course of the marriage the parties have --''

"Incurred these debts,'' Mr. Siminovsky says.

Justice Garson corrects him: "Did certain improvements to the property."

Justice Garson tells Mr. Siminovsky to be sure to bill Mr. Levi for writing the memo. "I'm telling you to charge for it," the judge says:" 'The judge made me do it If you don't like it, then I can't really put too much effort into your memo.' ''

Justice Garson granted Mr. Levi's divorce in January 2003 but did not get a chance to rule on the house because he was arrested on corruption charges.

Mr. Levi's ex-wife and the mother of his five children, Sigal Levi, said yesterday by phone that she had the feeling during the case that it had been fixed. But she said she had not known how closely the judge was working with her husband's lawyer.

"Is he a judge?'' Ms. Levi said. "What is he? How is he deciding the fates of people and families, ruining houses and families and children? They should put him in Alcatraz. And when he dies, vultures should eat his body."

In June, Mr. Levi pleaded guilty to giving a middleman $10,000 to obtain favorable treatment from Justice Garson.

In the final tape shown yesterday, made March 10, 2003, Justice Garson shares with Mr. Siminovsky some of his judicial philosophy.

When Mr. Siminovsky asks, "Do you got any trials this week?" Justice Garson replies: "Let me tell you something about this job. One of the greatest things about this job is I don't know what the [expletive] I have tomorrow until I get here. I don't give a [expletive] either, you know."

Mr. Siminovsky replies, "Can't argue with that."

A few minutes later on the tape, Mr. Siminovsky hands the judge something that prosecutors say is a short stack of ten marked $100 bills. The judge pockets it without comment. Ten minutes later, Justice Garson, alone in his office, pulls what appears to be the money out of his pocket and counts it.

After an interlude in which he is interviewed in his office by a high school student, Justice Garson, having apparently summoned Mr. Siminovsky back to his office, gives him back the money and asks him to write a check to his wife's judicial campaign instead.

Mr. Siminovsky urges the judge to take the money and offers to write a check, too. Justice Garson seems to agree and puts the money in his drawer.

A few minutes later, Mr. Siminovsky leaves the office.

"Keep the faith," he tells the judge.