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May 23, 2008

CVS Trial: Prosecution may have wrapped up

The prosecution appears to have finished presenting its case against former CVS executives John R. "Jack" Kramer and Carlos Ortiz.

After hearing today from two former CVS employees and a current employee, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi turned to prosecutors at 11:30 this morning and said that it appeared the government had no more witnesses for the day. She then sent the jury home about 90 minutes early for the long holiday weekend.

The early ending came after jurors heard brief testimony from Susan DelMonico, a lawyer who works in the Woonsocket-based CVS’s regulatory compliance division.

DelMonico testified that starting in the late 1990s, she spent a lot of time touting CVS in visits to senior citizens centers around Rhode Island as the company’s manager of community relations. She also said that she met former state Sen. John Celona at political fundraisers she attended with co-defendants Kramer and Ortiz, who are both facing charges of bribing Celona for favors at the State House.

But the prosecution didn’t get to another point it apparently wanted to highlight –– a conversation that DelMonico said she had with Kramer about Celona.

A defense lawyer for Ortiz objected to the prosecution’s question. That led to a sidebar conference between the lawyers and the judge, and after that, there were no further questions from the government and none from the defense.

Judge Lisi told the jurors to return to court next Tuesday at 9 a.m., at which point the government is expected to rest and the defense will have its turn to argue motions seeking dismissal of the charges and, barring that, to present its case.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 1:37 PM | Permalink

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