A Bronx schoolteacher bit her lips, twisted her mouth, looked up to the ceiling and occasionally squirmed on a witness stand Thursday as she denied being infatuated with a handsome New York City firefighter who had battled a deadly blaze.

Nervous and at times evasive, teacher Karen Krell admitted that she disobeyed a judge's orders when she served as a juror in a Bronx trial and tried to use Facebook to contact a firefighter witness, Brendan Cawley of Manhattan.

Cawley testified at last winter's trial in the case of the so-called Black Sunday blaze that took the lives of two firefighters in the Bronx. The judge had instructed jurors not to contact witnesses during the trial.

Defense attorney David Goldstein asked Krell if she was infatuated with Cawley when she made her initial attempt while the jury was deliberating to find him on Facebook, but she said she was not. Krell admitted she might have tried to contact other people involved in the trial, including firefighter Jeffery Cool, who also testified.

Goldstein is concerned that Krell - who testified in exchange for immunity on any potential contempt of court charge - may have influenced the deliberations of other jurors, throwing convictions in the case into doubt.

Goldstein and fellow defense attorney Neal Comer of White Plains were in court seeking to have State Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy throw out their clients' convictions in the case because of Krell's actions. They represent the company that owned the apartment building where the fire raged and manager Cesar Rios, who is free on bail pending sentencing, who were found guilty of doing nothing to remove illegal walls built by tenants.

Eventually, Cawley responded to Krell but not until the trial was over. The two exchanged Facebook messages but Cawley then notified the Bronx district attorney's office.

Both Cool and Cawley were injured battling the inferno at a building on East 178th Street in the Bronx on Jan. 23, 2005, and testified during the trial about illegally constructed walls that made it hard to escape.

Firefighter Curtis Meyran, 46, of Malverne, and John Bellew, 37, of Pearl River, leaped to their deaths trying to escape the fire. Meyran's widow, Jeanette, was in court Thursday, her 50th birthday, and said she intends to follow the case "until it's over."

Krell said on Feb. 13, 2009, while the jury was still deliberating the case, on the spur of the moment when she was at home, she sent Cawley a request to become her friend on the social networking site.

"I was up late at night," Krell said of her Facebook search for Cawley. "It was a very long day in court. I tried putting in some names of some people having to do with the trial."

Just after she sent her friend request to Cawley, Krell said she knew "that was a total mistake. I should not have done that."