PROVIDENCE — Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president of Roger Williams Medical Center, is seeking to have a judge overrule a jury’s verdict and reverse his conviction on federal corruption charges.

In a 25-page memorandum filed last week in U.S. District Court, Urciuoli’s team of three lawyers argued that federal prosecutors employed “misleading, unsupported and legally unsupportable inferences” that led the jury earlier this month to return 36 guilty verdicts against him.

“The government has failed to introduce sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Urciuoli acted with the criminal intent required under the charged offenses,” the lawyers wrote. “This failure requires a judgment of acquittal on all charges.”

Urciuoli is seeking a hearing on his motion for an acquittal. Thomas Connell, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, who prosecuted Urciuoli, declined comment yesterday, saying that his office will state its case if, and when, a hearing is held.

On Oct. 6, a jury convicted Urciuoli of one count of conspiracy and 35 counts of mail fraud. Another former hospital executive, Frances P. Driscoll, was found not guilty of the lone count against her — aiding and abetting Urciuoli in a scheme to defraud the citizens of Rhode Island of the honest services of John A. Celona, a former state senator from North Providence.

Celona, who is serving a 2½-year federal prison sentence in Pennsylvania, was paid $260,000 for his work at the Village of Elmhurst, an assisted-living center once affiliated with Roger Williams Hospital.

Urciuoli, who faces about three years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6.

During the four-week trial, prosecutors Luis Matos and Dulce Donovan directed the jury through a pile of memos, faxes and e-mails between Celona, Urciuoli and Driscoll. The trial had an unusual twist as Celona, who had testified in earlier corruption trials including the first trial of Urciuoli and Driscoll, was never called as a witness. As a result, Celona could not tie the document-laden case together, nor could the defense lawyers question him about his motives.

Last spring, Celona came across as a bumbling and often confused witness in the prosecution of two former CVS executives who faces similar charges of hiring him as a consultant to do the drugstore chain’s bidding on pharmacy-related legislation.

In seeking an acquittal, Urciuoli’s lawyers pointed out that their client “never asked or intended that former Senator Celona deviate from the honest performances of his duties….” They also said that he did not try to deceive “the state or the public” about his relationship with the senator.

The lawyers underscored the point that Urciuoli, through the hospital’s former legal counsel, James McGuirk, sought and received assurances that it was lawful to hire Celona, and that the state Ethics Commission approved the hiring.

“In short, there was not a shred of evidence that directly established, or supported a reasonable inference, that Mr. Urciuoli directed Mr. Celona to take any action in regard to legislation,” the memorandum reads. “… [T]he jury lacked an evidentiary basis relating to legislation to convict Mr. Urciuoli of honest services mail fraud.”

Urciuoli remains free on bail pending his sentencing.

bmalinow@projo.com