PROVIDENCE –– When the jury in the Roger Williams Medical Center corruption case begins its deliberations today, it will have two piles of documents to consider –– and two contrasting views of how to balance them in the scales of justice.

One pile consists of what the prosecution calls damning communications between former state Sen. John A. Celona and former hospital executives Robert A. Urciuoli and Frances P. Driscoll. In them, Celona talks tough about working to kill legislation and to keep the pressure on those who would stand in the hospital’s way. He speaks of what’s best for the hospital, not the public or his constituents.

The other pile consists of memos documenting Celona’s work among senior citizens, promoting the hospital’s “Continuum of Care” of medical services ranging from the hospital to its nursing home to its affiliated assisted-living center, The Village at Elmhurst. He is going to events at hospital facilities, schmoozing with seniors, learning about health services. That pile, the defense contends, proves that Celona was hired to perform a legitimate job, not for illicit political influence.

So, continuum of care, or continuum of corruption?

Assistant U.S. Attorney Luis M. Matos urged the jurors to examine the language of those communiqués, and ask whether Urciuoli and Driscoll “were talking to a politician like people who are not paying them. Not everyone gets to bribe a state senator. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s why we’re here today.”

Michael Connolly, a lawyer for Urciuoli, hammered away at what the prosecution didn’t present, namely testimony from Celona and others referenced in various documents –– witnesses who presumably could have spoken about the events described had they had any damning information or if the government’s case wasn’t a house of cards, he said.

Larry Tipton, one of Driscoll’s lawyers, echoed that, telling jurors: “The government will flip a coin in the air and, if it lands on heads, they won’t want you to know that there’s a tails side. But for every document they have that says one thing, there’s another side that’s tails.”

Yesterday’s closing arguments came one week after testimony ended in the criminal case against Urciuoli and Driscoll on charges that they conspired to steal the honest services of Celona, the now-imprisoned former state senator from North Providence. A week ago, Driscoll, 69, slipped on the courthouse steps and suffered severe injuries to her upper left arm. She underwent surgery last week and the trial was delayed until yesterday.

Driscoll, whose face was ashen, arrived in court through the rear entrance of the ornate gray building that is accessible to handicapped visitors. She was seated in the courtroom in a black wheelchair and she had a soft cast on her lower right leg.

Matos, who spoke first, portrayed Celona as a down-on-his-luck lawnmower salesman looking for a job in 1997, the same time that Urciuoli, having fought a bruising State House battle over a proposed merger, was looking for friends at the State House. From 1998 to 2003, Celona was paid $260,000 as a consultant.

“John Celona was in Robert Urciuoli’s hip pocket,” Matos told the jurors. “And Frances Driscoll helped keep him there.”

Matos walked the jury through two weeks of testimony that was built on documents and votes on legislation that affected Roger Williams Medical Center. Matos recalled the government’s first witness, Robert Palazzo, a former state senator from Providence.

Palazzo testified that Celona lobbied him to change his vote during the heated legislative battle over Roger Williams’ attempted merger in 1997. Later that summer, Urciuoli began telling people at the hospital that he wanted to hire Celona, even though the hospital’s lawyer, James McGuirk, thought it was “a bad idea.”

Connolly, Urciuoli’s lawyer, countered that McGuirk never told Urciuoli that hiring Celona would be illegal, and in fact procured an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission saying that Celona could participate in general health-care legislation. Urciuoli’s and Driscoll’s contacts with Celona regarding legislation were permissible under Rhode Island law governing its “citizen legislature,” in which part-time lawmakers work full-time jobs.

“You may not like the system of government in Rhode Island,” said Connolly. “The bottom line is, it is what it is. You can’t blame Mr. Urciuoli and Ms. Driscoll for the form of government that Rhode Island has chosen.”

Connolly also chastised the prosecution for presenting “a parade of documents” that only gave part of the picture, without calling key witnesses such as Celona, who could have explained what the documents meant. In Celona’s case, the defense argued, it was often the senator’s words on display, not Driscoll’s or Urciuoli’s response.

Although the jury did not know why, Celona wasn’t called because of credibility problems after he testified at a recent corruption case in which two CVS drugstore executives were acquitted of stealing his honest services, and also at the first trial of Urciuoli and Driscoll in 2006. That case resulted in convictions which were later reversed by an appeals court based on the judge’s jury instructions.

Celona, who pleaded guilty to selling his office to Roger Williams, CVS and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, is serving a 2½-year prison term.

Matos told jurors that Celona sold his office, figuratively and literally, when he used his office at the State House for meetings that he arranged between Urciuoli and Blue Cross President Ron Battista over millions of dollars in disputed reimbursements. Later, Celona did the same for meetings with leaders of UnitedHealthcare.

The health insurance executives came to Celona’s office, said Matos, because they had bills before Celona’s committee. The defense counters that the prosecution never called witnesses who said that they felt pressured, and argue that Celona didn’t actively negotiate.

But if those meetings were so innocuous, Matos asked jurors, why did Urciuoli tell the Rhode Island State Police in 2004 that he had never met with Battista and Celona? Urciuoli lied, the prosecutor charged, revealing his true state of mind and intent to commit a crime.

Connolly responded that after the investigation began Urciuoli was forthcoming about other meetings that he had had with Celona, and that the two hospital lawyers with him for the state-police interview would have done something had Urciuoli lied.

“Bob Urciuoli never thought he was doing anything wrong,” said Connolly. “He wasn’t bribing John Celona for anything.”

Matos ended his 80-minute closing argument by playing a brief clip from the end of an episode of the Celona State House Report in which Urciuoli was a guest. Celona peers at the camera and says, “I work for you.” Then, as the credits roll, he reaches over and shakes Urciuoli’s hand, an image that Matos left frozen on the television screen as he addressed his final words to the jury.

“The reality is that they knew he was not working for the people of the state –– he was working for him [Urciuoli],” said Matos.

Today, after receiving instructions on the law from Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi, the jury gets to decide.

mstanton@projo.com