He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6. A jury convicted Urciuoli, the former president and chief executive officer of Roger Williams Medical Center, of hiring former state senator John Celona to do the hospital's bidding at the State House. Defense attorneys said there was ample evidence that Celona was hired to do legitimate consulting and community outreach work for a senior center affiliated with the medical center.
They said they clearly showed that Urciuoli had been assured by lawyers for the hospital and by the state Ethics Commission that the relationship was legal.
"There was not a shred of evidence that directly established, or supported a reasonable inference, that Mr. Urciuoli directed Mr. Celona to take any action in regard to legislation, let alone that Celona was being paid for legislative influence," the lawyers wrote.
Frances Driscoll, a codefendant and former hospital vice president, was acquitted of the one corruption count she faced.
Tom Connell, a spokesman for the US attorney's office in Rhode Island, did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday. Urciuoli's lawyers either declined to comment or did not return a call seeking comment.
This was the executives' second trial. A federal appeals court earlier this year threw out convictions from their first trial in 2006 because of flawed jury instructions from the judge.
Prosecutors opted not to call Celona, who is serving a federal prison sentence for corruption, as a witness.
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