Urciuoli

PROVIDENCE –– Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president of Roger Williams Medical Center, is trying to convince a judge that he should not be retried on federal corruption charges because prosecutors improperly pressured the hospital to fire him and stop paying for his legal defense.

As a result, Urciuoli says, he has been deprived of his constitutional rights, owes more than $500,000 in legal fees and has seen his personal finances deteriorate from his heyday, when he was paid more than $400,000 a year as Roger Williams’ high-flying CEO, to a meager $9,000 in earnings in the two years since his indictment.

Yesterday, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi rejected an affidavit in support of Urciuoli from his old friend and a former hospital director –– ex-Lt. Gov. Richard Licht.

Licht says in his May 14 affidavit that government investigators probing Urciuoli’s hiring of state Sen. John A. Celona gave hospital lawyers the impression that “if the hospital did not terminate Mr. Urciuoli and immediately stop (paying) him for his legal fees, the hospital would be prosecuted.”

The hospital was charged, along with Urciuoli and former hospital vice president Frances P. Driscoll, on Jan. 5, 2006. Shortly thereafter, on Jan. 16, the hospital’s board of directors voted to fire Urciuoli, a decision that Licht opposed. And 10 days after that, on Jan. 26, the leaders of Roger Williams signed a deferred prosecution agreement, admitting to criminal misconduct by hiring Celona for his political influence, agreeing to ethical reforms and promising $4 million in free health care to the poor.

Urciuoli and Driscoll, meanwhile, went on to be convicted in a trial that fall, only to have their convictions overturned early this year by a federal appeals court in Boston based on the judge’s instructions to the jury. A new trial could happen this fall.

In the two years since his conviction, Urciuoli argues, two other federal appeals courts have repudiated the prosecution’s “coercive role” in pressuring corporations to avoid prosecution by forcing out targeted executives and cutting off their legal fees. In one case, involving accounting giant KMPG, an appeals court in New York dismissed charges against 13 defendants on similar grounds, according to court papers filed by Urciuoli’s lawyers.

Urciuoli’s motion also notes that the U.S. Department of Justice has reversed its requirement that prosecutors consider whether a corporation is paying a targeted employees’ legal fees in deciding whether to seek criminal charges against the corporation.

The government has not yet responded to the defense motion. Prosecutors have denied that they forced Roger Williams to fire Urciuoli.

Licht said in his affidavit that the Roger Williams board backed Urciuoli throughout the government’s investigation, believing that he had done nothing wrong, and only reversed course after the hospital itself was charged and faced extinction.

Licht went on to describe terse discussions among the hospital’s leaders and their lawyers in the days following Roger Williams’ indictment. During those discussions, Licht said in his affidavit, “it was my belief that the board felt if the hospital wanted to have the criminal charges against it dropped ... it had no choice but to terminate Mr. Urciuoli and to cease paying for his legal fees.”

When Urciuoli was fired, one of his lawyers, Robert G. Flanders, accused the hospital of “throwing Urciuoli under the bus.” Flanders said that it was Licht who had helped convince the board to initially reject a deal with prosecutors, on the eve of the indictment.

As a longtime member of the hospital board’s executive committee, Licht had also argued against firing Urciuoli in 1998, when an internal review concluded that the hospital president had misspent thousands of dollars of hospital money on personal expenses — lavish family dinners, golf trips and stays in luxurious hotels. In one case, the review concluded, Urciuoli “may have committed a serious fraud” by billing the hospital $5,998 for an eight-day sojourn with his family to the Scottsdale Princess resort in Arizona for a nonexistent health-care conference.

Licht, who has represented Urciuoli’s wife’s family real-estate business, did not return a call seeking comment.

In court yesterday, Judge Lisi said that Licht’s affidavit did not carry any weight with her.

“This affidavit is really worthless, frankly, in terms of its evidentiary value,” she said. “It does not set forth any relevant facts to the issue it allegedly supports. It’s the impressions of Mr. Licht.”

Lisi told Michael J. Connolly, Urciuoli’s lawyer, that she was “disturbed” that defense lawyers didn’t seek the hospital’s permission to waive its attorney-client privilege before obtaining an affidavit from a former board member regarding privileged communications.

Connolly argued that the hospital had waived its privilege when it provided information to the authorities during the criminal investigation. But the judge pointed to a clause in the deferred prosecution agreement protecting the privilege for communications involving the investigation. Criticizing Urciuoli’s lawyers’ “somewhat reckless behavior,” Lisi granted the hospital’s motion to strike and seal Licht’s affidavit.

Urciuoli also filed an affidavit last month, in which he said that his finances have deteriorated since his first trial, making it difficult to mount “the type of defense I believe is necessary to protect my rights.”

stanton@projo.com