PROVIDENCE — Defense lawyers spent more than five hours yesterday trying to poke holes in the testimony of Jose Gonzalez, a former inmate who has accused two guards at the Adult Correctional Institutions of physically and verbally assaulting him two years ago.

Gonzalez, the fourth former prisoner from minimum-security to take the witness stand, has made the most serious allegations against Capt. Gualter Botas and Lt. Kenneth Viveiros, the two ex-guards charged with multiple counts of simple assault. As a result, their lawyers, John Lynch Jr. and Olin W. Thompson III, have spent more time cross-examining him about details involving each allegation.

Over three days this week, Gonzalez, 26, testified that on Feb. 14, 2006, he went to Botas’ office after corrections officers found a large supply of Ramen soup noodles in his living quarters. He said that Botas repeatedly struck him in the face and head with his hand, a sealed packet of copy paper and a phone book.

Gonzalez testified that Botas ordered him to hold his hands on each side of his face, an inch or so off his cheeks. The impact of the blows with the phone book forced Gonzalez’s hands to hit his own face.

“If I’m hitting you with this, you are hitting yourself,” said Botas, according to Gonzalez.

He also testified that Viveiros broke packets of the soup over his head and that Botas made him strip naked. Once undressed, Gonzalez testified that Botas made him spread his buttocks and threatened to sodomize him unless he provided them with information about drugs and gangs in the prison.

Gonzalez, who cried several times on the witness stand, said that he had no information and that he felt “violated and humiliated” by the experience.

Thompson, Viveiros’ lawyer, suggested that Gonzalez came forward after he learned from a television report that a fellow inmate was talking about suing the prison for alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of the guards.

Gonzalez insisted that it was an inmate, not the televised report, that prompted him to come forward.

“It had nothing to do with the news,” said Gonzalez, who was serving a two-year prison term. “I didn’t have time to watch TV.”

Thompson and Lynch peppered Gonzalez with a stream of questions about where the alleged blows landed, what he was struck with and who leveled the strikes. They searched for discrepancies between statements Gonzalez provided to investigators and at an earlier trial in District Court.

Last year, a District Court judge found Botas, 39, of Pawtucket; and Viveiros, 56, of North Providence, guilty of assaulting Gonzalez. The judge said that she found Gonzalez’s testimony convincing. They appealed their convictions to Superior Court. In the meantime, investigators and prosecutors expanded their case to include testimony from three more former inmates.

They are Matthew Gumkowski, Robert Houghton and Anthony Romano. Each has testified at length about the alleged abuses, but their total time on the witness stand was significantly shorter than that of Gonzalez.

Botas and Viveiros were both fired last year.

Gonzalez, who speaks softly in broken English, grew frustrated at times, but, for the most part, he quietly answered the questions posed to him.

The trial continues tomorrow and state police Detective Joseph Philbin, the lead investigator, is expected to testify.

bmalinow@projo.com