During the same period, in 1997, Roger Williams was mounting an extensive lobbying campaign over its attempted merger. Celona said that he began meeting and talking regularly with Urciuoli regarding two topics – Celona’s efforts to lobby on behalf of Roger Williams, and "my prospective job" with the hospital.

"I flipped a couple of senators," testified Celona, explaining that he convinced them to change their vote to support Roger Williams.

Shortly after the merger failed to muster legislative support, Celona said, he visited Urciuoli at Roger Williams to talk about "my job." Urciuoli, said Celona, praised the senator’s lobbying efforts and told him, "I’m going to try to find something for you."

Although Urciuoli initially said that he would try to find a position for Celona at the hospital, Celona testified, he was subsequently called to a meeting with Driscoll and a Roger Williams lawyer at Elmhurst Extended Care, the hospital’s nursing home.

Celona said that Driscoll handed him pamphlets and brochures for the Village at Elmhurst and pointed out the window, across the parking lot, to the adjacent assisted-living center, saying that he would get a position there as a consultant.

At this point, Celona testified, neither Urciuoli nor Driscoll had ever said anything to him about what his duties might be. At his meeting with Driscoll, Celona said, "She asked me to come up with something" regarding what duties he should perform.

At that point, court ended for the day. Celona, who will be back on the stand tomorrow, and probably longer, was on the stand for about an hour today.

He spoke expansively about his long political career, which began when he was a student at Providence College in the 1970s, and about his family’s various businesses growing up – often so expansively that the judge asked the prosecutor to narrow his questions and Urciuoli’s lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, frequently objected.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

2 witnesses say they did not know Celona was consultant
Posted 1:08 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Two former marketing employees for The Village at Elmhurst testified in federal court today that while they crossed paths with John A. Celona, they were never told that he was a paid consultant to the assisted-living center, nor did they ever work with him to promote the center.

Lisa Hawthorne and Lori Zito worked for Village Retirement Communities, which operates a series of senior living and assisted living centers. One of those, The Village At Elmhurst, was in partnership with Roger Williams Medical Center.

They took the stand in the third day of the Roger Williams Medical Center corruption trial in U.S. District Court.

Hawthorne testified that she was introduced to Celona at a function at Village Retirement Communities' corporate office but wasn't told that he was a paid consultant. He did not report to her and was not paid out of her marketing budget.

Shortly after their meeting, Hawthorne said, she met with Celona at his State House office and then appeared on his cable-access television show to talk about her company's assisted-living centers in Rhode Island. But she said she viewed Celona as someone else in the community, not a paid employee.

Zito, the former director of community relations, followed Hawthorne to the stand. She testified that she gave Celona a tour of the Village at Elmhurst but was unaware that he was a paid consultant. She viewed his interest as that of a state senator with contacts among the elderly in North Providence, an area from which the assisted-living center was trying to recruit residents from.

The defense was set to cross-examine Zito after the lunch break. Then, after one more witness, Celona is scheduled to take the stand, either late today or tomorrow.

Get more background on the trial from today's Journal report.

The prosecution contends that while Celona, then a state senator, was hired as a consultant at the Village, he never actually did much work there. In reality, the prosecution argues, he was paid to use his public office to to the hospital's bidding.

Lisa Hawthorne said that she didn't know Celona was a paid consultant until she read about it in the newspaper. "I remember saying to my husband, 'Wow, he's making $700 a week at the Village at Elmhurst,' '' she testified.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton