WATERBURY — A few weeks before Bridgeport cut all ties to Alex Conroy and his proposed billion-dollar Steel Point project, the state urged the city to do so.

That's what Charles Willinger Jr. Thursday told a Superior Court jury hearing Conroy's multimillion-dollar civil suit against Bridgeport and five other defendants.

Reading from a note he kept of a Feb. 22, 2000, phone call with Dennis Murphy, Bridgeport's former chief administrative officer, Willinger said Murphy informed him of the suggestion from James Abromaitis, the state's former economic and community development chief.

Willinger's note maintains Abromaitis told Murphy "the state thinks the city should let go of Conroy and contact the two" other bidders on the Steel Point project.

On March 1, 2000, Murphy sent Conroy a letter informing him that Bridgeport was terminating his involvement in the project. This came after years of negotiations, revisions and amendments to the development agreement and three separate financial backers leaving him.

Conroy claims in his lawsuit that corruption in Bridgeport delayed and then scuttled his project. He is suing Willinger; the city of Bridgeport; former Mayor Joseph P. Ganim; Alfred Lenoci Sr. and his son, Alfred Jr., and their real estate companies; and Joseph P. Kasper Jr. and his architectural and engineering firm. Conroy alleges they conspired to get the project to the Lenocis.

But Willinger's testimony regarding the Murphy phone call may have damaged

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Conroy's contention that the state and former Gov. John G. Rowland were supporting his project.

The Bridgeport real-estate lawyer was the last witness in the evidentiary portion of the trial that began March 4. This morning, Superior Court Judge Barry K. Stevens will hear arguments on several motions to remove charges or defendants from Conroy's suit. The judge told the six-member jury to return to court Wednesday at 10 a.m. to begin hearing final arguments from the lawyers.

He has given Conroy's legal team an hour to state its case and another hour to rebut defense claims. Each of the six defense lawyers will get an hour to press their case. After that, the judge will instruct the jury on the laws they are to use.

Willinger spent some of his testimony Thursday explaining the $2.7 million Bridgeport paid to his firm from 1995 through 2001 as well as the $21.5 million the city deposited into his trustee account.

Of that money, Willinger said $1,116,000 in payments and $15,745,000 in trustee deposits involved Steel Point. The remainder involved other work the law firm was doing for the city, including the Congress Plaza redevelopment.

He also said his firm was selected on two different contracts to work on two separate phases of Steel Point. The first involved negotiating with Conroy, for which his firm received $150 for each hour a lawyer and $60 for each hour a paralegal spent on the task.

They then were chosen over four other law firms to coordinate the acquisition of 140 homes and relocation of nine water-dependent users. For that project, Willinger said his firm was paid $135 for each hour a partner worked, $115 for each hour an associate worked and $70 for each hour a paralegal worked.

The firm, now known as Willinger, Willinger and Bucci, was selected over Quatrella and Rizio of Fairfield; Owens, Schine and Nicola; Pullman & Comley and Anne Phillips. Nicholas Cioffi, a former Superior Court judge and state public safety commissioner, conducted interviews.

"I believe we were the low bidder," Willinger said.