Convictions of former RWMC execs vacated

BOSTON – A federal appeals court this month vacated the corruption convictions of two former Roger Williams Medical Center executives and ordered a new trial.
Robert A. Urciuoli, the former Roger Williams president and CEO; and Frances P. Driscoll, its former vice president, both had appealed their 2006 convictions.
Urciuoli had been convicted of charges related to stealing the honest services of former state Sen. John A. Celona by paying him for political favors. Driscoll had been found guilty of one count of mail fraud.
Urciuoli had been sentenced to 36 months in jail. Driscoll had been sentenced to eight months in jail and eight months on home confinement.
In their appeals, the defendants argued that the judge’s instructions “wrongly allowed for conviction” based on Celona’s lobbying of mayors and meeting with insurance companies, “conduct that they claim does not constitute a federal crime.”
Following the ruling, U.S. Attorney Robert Clarke announced his office would retry both Urciuoli and Driscoll.