PROVIDENCE – Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president and CEO of Roger Williams Medical Center, was found guilty today “of corruptly employing former R.I. Sen. John A. Celona to advance the medical center’s interests in the General Assembly,” U.S. Justice Department officials said. But Frances P. Driscoll, the hospital’s former vice president, was acquitted of a similar charge.
Today’s verdicts followed four days of deliberation and a three-week trial, Robert Clark Corrente, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, said in his mid-day announcement.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Urcioli had hired Celona in 1998, “ostensibly to work for the Village at Elmhurst, an assisted living center affiliated with Roger Williams,” but actually “to advance the Medical Center’s political agenda and by doing so, deprived the citizens of Rhode Island of their right to Celona’s honest services,” Corrente said in his statement today.
Between 1998 and 2004, the then-lawmaker received about $260,000 in consulting fees from Roger Williams. “In return, Celona took steps to kill bills deemed harmful to Roger Williams and to advance legislation that Urciuoli considered favorable,” Corrente said.
“The jury found Urciuoli guilty of conspiracy and 35 counts of mail fraud,” Corrente said. The conspiracy charge and 17 of the mail-fraud charges carry maximum penalties of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the other 18 mail-fraud counts, for transactions after federal sentencing guidelines changed in July 2002, carry maximum penalties of 20 years and $250,000 apiece. The former hospital CEO “remains free on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 6,” the U.S. attorney added.
Meanwhile, the jury cleared Driscoll, who had faced one count of “aiding and abetting the honest services mail fraud scheme,” Corrente said.
The trial was the second for both Urcioli and Driscoll, whose October 2006 convictions were set aside in January by a federal appeals court. (READ MORE) In rejecting the previous verdicts against the former hospital executives, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, concluded that the lower-court judge’s instructions to the jury “were over-broad.”
The retrial of Urciuoli and Driscoll was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luis M. Matos and Dulce Donovan, Corrente said, based on evidence gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the R.I. State Police during their “Operation Dollar Bill” (READ MORE) public corruption probe.
Celona, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in September 2005, is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence.
For information about the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and its decisions, visit www.rid.uscourts.gov. For news and information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island, visit http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ri.
