NEW YORK — John Lennon's personal assistant used his job to gather material he hoped would make him rich, a jury learned Wednesday in a copyright battle between the former assistant and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

"It occurred to me after I'd been doing it for awhile that I was an eyewitness to history, and at some point I would like to publish a book about John Lennon," testified Frederic Seaman, who worked for the family between 1979 and 1981.

After Lennon's death in 1980, Seaman learned that material he had gathered — including Lennon's diaries, photos and private letters — could be worth millions.

Frederic Seaman outside federal court in Manhattan Monday

"[A friend with connections in the publishing business] is thinking in terms of $5 million and he has visions of parties and yachts on the Riviera (why not?)," Seaman wrote in his diary in 1982. Seaman's dreams didn't pan out to that extent, but, according to Ono, he made as much as $75,000 from selling her late husband's effects and publishing photos he took of the family.

Ono, 69, is asking in her suit against Seaman that the one-time assistant relinquish his copyright claim to 374 photographs he took of the family and that he turn over his profits from Lennon-related material.

The legal issue at hand is whether the photos were "works for hire," taken as part of Seaman's job, or whether Lennon permitted Seaman to take pictures for his own use.

Seaman testified that Lennon gave him carte blanche to photograph the family, asking only for prints of their most photogenic moments. But Ono told jurors Tuesday that Seaman was never a friend of the family and had not been given permission to use the photos.

In his cross-examination of Seaman Wednesday, Ono's attorney, Paul LiCalsi, succeeded in overshadowing copyright law with Seaman's past transgressions.

In 1983, Seaman pleaded guilty to grand larceny for stealing Lennon's diaries and other items during his last year with the family. He received five years' probation on condition that he return the stolen materials.

Seaman was reluctant to acknowledge the crime on the stand and said numerous times that he "removed the diaries," but never admitted to stealing them.

Throughout the morning, Seaman, 49, wore a grin while conferring with his lawyers and answering questions on the stand. But when questioned by LiCalsi, he scowled and provided curt, monotone answers.

Seaman's own penchant for diary keeping — he sometimes recorded events by the hour — proved his undoing under oath. Whenever he refused to cooperate with LiCalsi's questioning, the lawyer retorted with Seaman's own words from the diaries and from depositions.

LiCalsi tried to get Seaman to admit that he was secretly collecting valuable memorabilia from the time he signed on with the Lennons in 1979. The lawyer read one passage from Seaman's diary from Sunday, June 1, 1980, in which Seaman wrote that he had succeeded in concealing his aspirations as a writer from Lennon. In the passage, Seaman wrote that Lennon had lectured him on the vagaries of the nightclub business, Seaman's falsely professed career aspiration.

"Assure him I know what he is saying," wrote Seaman. "I'm glad I managed to throw him off track and convince him I'm not interested in writing."

Sean Lennon arrived at the federal courthouse in Manhattan Tuesday.

Ono, who was dwarfed at the plaintiff's table by binders of documents, shook her head during revelations that Seaman, then a highly trusted member of the entourage, considered the family a gold mine. Her 26-year-old son, Sean Lennon, who accompanied her to court and sat in the front row, also shook his head and sometimes laughed.

Though Wednesday was the first day of Seaman's case, his lawyer appeared to make little headway.

Throughout his direct examination, Glenn Wolther clung to the theme that Seaman took most of the pictures in question with his own camera, a Canon F28, which the lawyer held aloft in the courtroom.

But on cross-examination, LiCalsi noted that, although Seaman attached great significance to the ownership of the camera, he also claimed the rights to a video taken with a camera owned by Lennon. The video, played in court, showed the Lennons relaxing at their Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., home. Seaman stared ahead for about 15 seconds before replying, "Yes."

"So I guess it isn't very important who owns the camera, right?" LiCalsi asked.

Wolther will continue his case Thursday.