Former state Sen. John Celona, above, leaves Superior Court in Providence yesterday with his wife, Karleen. He pleaded no contest to two state corruption charges. Judge Daniel A. Procaccini, right, sentenced him to seven years at the ACI, four to serve, saying Celona’s crime “undermines the confidence citizens should have in the operation of their state government; and ultimately, it erodes the quality of life in our state.”

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE -- Already facing federal jail time, John A. Celona, a once-powerful and headline-seeking senator from North Providence, was sentenced yesterday to seven years at the state prison — with four to serve — for playing senator-for-hire with three major companies on the Rhode Island health-care scene.

He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini after pleading no contest to two of five corruption charges pending against him. As part of a plea-and-sentencing agreement worked out in advance with state prosecutors, the attorney general’s office agreed to dismiss three other misdemeanor charges.

Presumably, Celona will serve out his 2½ years in federal prison and then report to the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston to serve the remaining year and a half of his concurrent state prison sentence.

In handing down the sentence, Procaccini noted that court guidelines do not recommend jail time for first-offenders, but he said the “unique and unfortunate circumstances of this case” warrant a “significant period of incarceration.”

“This is not a case of one instance of fraud or deceit between Mr. Celona and one unsuspecting victim. Rather, the impact of this offense is statewide; it undermines the confidence citizens should have in the operation of their state government; and ultimately, it erodes the quality of life in our state.”

“Though elected by the voters of one senatorial district, the defendant owed a duty of loyalty and trust to each and every man, woman and child in this state — 1,076,189 to be exact,” Procaccini said.

Assistant Attorney GeneralJ. Patrick Youngs IIII said Celona “brought shame to the Senate of Rhode Island.”

Walking quickly past a throng of reporters as he left the courthouse yesterday with his wife, Karleen, and lawyer William C. Dimitri, Celona had no comment. Earlier, however, in a statement filed in U.S. District Court, he apologized to his constituents and said: “They all deserve better and yet, they have seen enough corruption in this small state to last them a lifetime.

“It is not enough that I wasn’t accepting bags of cash in some dark alley. The fact is that I allowed my vote and my actions to be influenced by money and although the jobs were seemingly legitimate, they rapidly turned into something else…I am truly ashamed for taking part in the conduct for which I stand accused, convicted.”

Both the state and the federal cases revolved around the same central allegation: that Celona, 53, the onetime operator of a family-owned lawnmower and snowblower repair business who acquired newfound power and prestige as chairman of the Senate committee handling health-care legislation — the Senate Corporations Committee — effectively sold his public office for personal gain.

Federal prosecutors nabbed him on mail-fraud charges under a different theory of law than that pursued by state prosecutors: that his use of his position as a senator and committee chairman to advance the interests of corporations that gave him money and gifts deprived the citizens of the state of his “honest services” as a lawmaker.

In state court yesterday, he pleaded no contest to obtaining his $12,063-a-year legislative salary “under the false pretense that he was faithfully and impartially discharging the duties of a state senator” when he, in fact, was enmeshed in a scheme “to cheat or defraud.”

Had the case gone to trial, Celona faced up to 10 years in prison on this charge alone, the only felony in the five-count indictment.

Celona also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge that his camouflaged employment by the Roger Williams Medical Center as a consultant to an affiliate, The Village at Elmhurst, constituted a violation of state ethics law.

According to evidence presented in federal court, Celona was actually paid to promote the hospital’s political agenda through his position as a senator from North Providence — influencing legislation, lobbying municipalities to increase ambulance runs to the hospital and pressuring health insurers with bills before his committee to increase their reimbursements to Roger Williams.

The attorney general’s office dropped three other alleged criminal violations of state ethics law spanning a six-year period that ran from February 1998 through February 2004, when the state, federal and ethics investigations spawned by a series of late-2003 Providence Journal articles were just getting under way in earnest.

One of the dropped charges alleged the filing of false disclosure statements with the state Ethics Commission. Another alleged that his hidden employment as a $1,000-a-month consultant to the CVS pharmacy chain impaired “his independence of judgment,” and the third, that he effectively sold his public office to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island for personal gain for himself “and/or CRI Communications,” the small company that produced his Blue Cross-financed cable-access television show on health care. While the state case never went to trial, it was alleged in a companion federal case that he received about $319,000 in hidden payments from Roger Williams, CVS and Blue Cross during a period of time in which he was a high-ranked state senator, presiding over the Senate committee that handled bills affecting the health-care industry including much-debated pharmacy “freedom of choice” legislation.

“I did not set out to violate the code of ethics or the criminal laws: I was just trying to provide for my family. However, over time, I bent and broke the rules and committed acts that are both criminal and violate the code of ethics,” Celona told the Ethics Commission last July.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said he was mindful when he agreed to drop three of the charges that the Ethics Commission had already imposed a record $130,000 in civil fines on Celona in connection with all of the allegations except those involving Roger Williams Hospital.

As a State House lobbyist himself for CVS during part of the time that Celona was secretly on the pharmacy chain’s payroll, Lynch said again recently that he was as shocked as anyone to subsequently learn of Celona’s undisclosed financial relationship to the company. “Just the concept of this man doing that was and remains shocking to me, offensive to me, but most importantly is a gross betrayal of trust and at its core absolutely illegal.”

He said he kept an arms-length distance from the investigation, conducted by prosecutors Youngs and Emily Maranjian and overseen by his top deputy, Gerald Coyne, until he was asked to approve the plea agreement.

A Feb. 9, 2007, recommendation memo obtained by The Providence Journal indicates that the prosecutors initially sought an even harsher punishment — a 10-year sentence, with five-years to serve and five suspended — and then bargained down.

In arguing for that high a sentence, the prosecutors cited Celona’s oath of office pledge to “faithfully and impartially discharge the duties” of his office and said: “That oath and the power and prestige that accompanied it resulted in Mr. Celona receiving a salary as a state Senator as well as enjoying the influence and responsibility commensurate with the position.”

“Even a casual observer of the news of the day would recognize the disrespect and suspicion of the legislature that Mr. Celona’s actions have visited on the State House…The betrayal of trust and the besmirching of a branch of government will linger over the state long after the relatively small amount of money Mr. Celona received from large corporations is forgotten or written off the book.”

As to why the state charges justify so much more time in jail than Celona’s 30-month federal sentence for his role in the federally prosecuted senator-for-hire scheme, the state prosecutors wrote: “The state has a particular interest in a sentence that singularly vindicates the state of Rhode Island. It is imperative that a message goes out to all public officials that the people of the state of Rhode Island do not and will not tolerate corrupt representatives.”

The memo also contends that the federal sentence was determined “in large part by a sentencing formula that [adds] up the amount of money he received from Roger Williams Hospital, CVS and Blue Cross/Blue Shield…This case involves an abiding and significant interest by the state of Rhode Island in the behavior and abuse of authority by a powerful state Senate leader.”

By way of comparison, Edward D. DiPrete, who was governor from 1985 until 1991, pleaded guilty in December 1998 to 18 crimes of racketeering, extortion and bribery and served 11 months in prison.

Asked why Celona’s actions warrant a much longer sentence, Lynch said the DiPrete conviction and sentencing was meant to send “a message” but then “John Celona comes along years later and commits essentially the same act, accepting the people’s trust that is put in him, in good faith, that he would serve the people well. He grossly distorts and betrays that.”

“Because it has happened before and he didn’t get the message, his sentence should be more significant.”

Celona must report to federal prison by noon Friday, March 2, to begin serving the 30 month-sentence handed him by Senior U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres late last month.

Under state law and sentencing guidelines, he would be eligible for parole from state prison after serving a third of his concurrent four-year state sentence — or 16 months. So under the best of circumstances for him, he could leave federal prison after 2½ years and avoid any substantial amount of time in state prison.

Senate leaders had no comment yesterday on the sentencing yesterday of their former colleague.

But Governor Carcieri said of Celona’s sentence: “This shameful episode of an elected official who betrayed the trust of the voters has been properly handled in the state court. It is important to see that public corruption will not be tolerated and those who defy the law will pay the price.”

kgregg@projo.com