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January 18, 2008

Update: Court vacates Urciuoli, Driscoll convictions

A federal appeals court has overturned the corruption convictions of two former top Roger Williams Medical Center executives accused of paying a state senator to push their agenda at the State House. The panel also ordered a new trial in its decision announced this afternoon.

Robert A. Urciuoli, the medical center's former president, and Frances Driscoll, a former senior vice president, had appealed their convictions tied to the theft of "honest services" from former state Sen. John Celona.

The two argued to the three-judge 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Boston that the jury had gotten faulty instructions from Judge Ernest C. Torres in U.S. District Court in Providence.

In October 2006 verdicts, Urciuoli was found guilty of conspiracy to commit "honest services" mail fraud and 35 counts of "honest services" mail fraud, or aiding and abetting such fraud. Driscoll was convicted of one count of "honest services" mail fraud. Execution of their sentences was stayed pending their appeals.

In their appeals, the defendants argued the judge's instructions "wrongly allowed for conviction" based on Celona lobbying mayors and in meeting with insurance companies, "conduct that they claim does not constitute a federal crime."

The appeals court ruled in a 25-page decision that Torres instructed, over the defense's objection, that pertinent law included not only exercises of power such as votes but also any actions done "under the cloak of office."

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thomas Connell said late this afternoon that his office had not yet decided whether to call for another trial for Urciuoli and Driscoll.

“We’re reviewing the decision, and we will make an appropriate decision as to a path of conduct once we have reviewed and analyzed the import of this decision,” he said.

Read the decision today by the appeals court.

Extra: Look back at coverage related to the Celona corruption case and the investigation known as Operation Dollar Bill.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Dan Barbarisi, Journal archival reports and The Associated Press

Part of the appeals court's vacating of the convictions centers around Celona's lobbying town officials to get more ambulance runs to the hospitals.

The appeals court decision found the "ambulance run advocacy with the mayors cannot qualify as a deprivation of 'honest services' owed to the public." The court added that urging local officials to follow law "is not easily described as a deprivation of honest services, actually or potentially harmful to the citizens of Rhode Island."

The appeals court concludes "... the [jury] instructions were over-broad insofar as they licensed the jury to consider the rescue run advocacy as a deprivation of honest services, but that the insurance episodes were properly considered as potentially criminal -- as, needless to say, were Celona's actions in promoting or blocking legislation to favor" Roger Williams Medical Center, the decision says.

Lawyers for Urciouli and Driscoll praised the decision.

“Fran Driscoll is a thoroughly decent person and consequently I couldn’t be happier because she is somebody who fully deserves the result that is reached here," John A. "Terry" MacFadyen, the lawyer for Driscoll, said.

"I'm absolutely excited to get the results, and I think it's a great thing for a decent man," said Martin Weinberg, a lawyer for Urciuoli.

Celona, a North Providence Democrat who had served as chairman of the powerful Senate Corporations Committee, admitted selling his office for personal gain to Roger Williams Medical Center, the drugstore chain CVS and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island. He pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud in August 2005 and was sentenced a year ago to 30 months in federal prison.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 5:59 PM | Permalink

Comments

I think it is time for the US Federal Attorney to drop the charges agains Ms Driscoll......even with the improper charge to the jury she was found guilty of one charge of mail fraud.

Do the right thing for a decent person who now is back to innocent

Paul | January 18, 2008 9:03 PM link

it proves that there is a system that works

mike | January 19, 2008 6:49 AM link

January 18, 2008

Update: Court vacates Urciuoli, Driscoll convictions

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