A judge in North Carolina, USA has been convicted of bribery after a jury found that he tried to buy a police officer's favour using "a couple of cases of beer."

Superior Court judge Arnold Ogden Jones II offered the officer beer in exchange for him passing on text messages from his wife's mobile phone. The beer offer was subsequently upgraded to $100 in cash.

Judge Jones wanted to see the text messages as he suspected his wife was cheating on him. The officer in question was also a member of an FBI task force, the Raleigh News and Observer reported.

According to the defence, Judge Jones was led along by the police deputy.

"The deputy said yes when he should have just said no," the judge's lawyer argued. 

A jury took 33 minutes to convict him of bribery and other related charges. 

The judge has said he plans to appeal the verdict, and said that he will continue campaigning for reelection in November. 

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