PROVIDENCE — A church bazaar. A senior-housing tenant association meeting. An ice cream social. Name any event involving senior citizens in North Providence, and you could bet Sen. John A. Celona would be there.

“He was at everything,” Karen A. Testa, executive director of the Salvatore Mancini Resource & Activity Center in North Providence, testified in federal court yesterday. “He attended absolutely every event involving seniors.”

And, Testa said, “The seniors were very fond of him.”

The judge upheld the prosecution’s objection to the last part of Testa’s statement. But her testimony launched an attempt by defense lawyers to show that Roger Williams Medical Center had legitimate, legal reasons for hiring the state senator from North Providence as a $700-a-week consultant.

The hospital’s former president, Robert A. Urciuoli, and its former vice president, Frances P. Driscoll, are being tried in U.S. District Court on charges that they stole the honest services of Celona by paying him to use his political muscle to benefit the hospital.

In 2006, a jury convicted Urciuoli of one count of conspiracy and 35 counts of mail fraud, and it convicted Driscoll of one count of mail fraud while acquitting her of conspiracy in Celona’s hiring. But a federal appeals court overturned the convictions based on faulty instructions given to jurors, and the retrial began Sept. 9.

Yesterday’s court session began with prosecutors introducing a series of exhibits and displaying some of the documents for the jury.

For example, jurors saw a Dec. 21, 2001, e-mail exchange between Celona and Urciuoli. A day earlier, they had met with Thomas Lynch, a former state senator and then-vice president of Blue Cross, which was in a dispute with Roger Williams over reimbursements.

“Bob: I hope I didn’t lay it on Tom Lynch too much yesterday,” Celona wrote. “but it was done in a systematic fashion in order to get them ‘in line’ for us. Needless to say, I’ll keep up the pressure.”

Urciuoli wrote back, “You didn’t, he deserved to get cranked around. Again — thanks for you’re help!”

The prosecution rested its case at 9:55 a.m. yesterday, and a few minutes later Urciuoli’s lawyers called Testa as their first witness.

The defense has argued that Celona performed legitimate services by promoting the hospital and an affiliated assisted-living center — The Village at Elmhurst — to his extensive network of senior citizens.

Testa, who said she has worked “23 wonderful years” at the Mancini senior center, testified that Celona was well known by the town’s “senior population.”

“Anything to do with seniors, he attended 99 percent of events, especially at the senior center,” she said in response to questions from one of Urciuoli’s lawyers.

Testa said that in 1998 Celona told her he was “doing work with” The Village at Elmhurst, and he invited her and a case manager to take a tour of the assisted-living center. She said that as a result of the tour, she referred senior citizens to The Village at Elmhurst.

Jurors saw a thank-you letter that Testa sent to Celona after taking the tour. “The Village is a first-class facility and offers our elderly the secured lifestyle they deserve,” she wrote. “John, you are truly an asset to The Village.”

Also, Testa testified that Celona took part in a presentation at the Mancini senior center, talking about The Village at Elmhurst and insurance coverage for people in assisted-living facilities.

When questioned by one of Driscoll’s lawyers, Testa said she has known Celona for years. She recalled when he owned a lawnmower repair shop and she remembered seeing him at church. She said she has seen Celona at the senior center, smiling and shaking hands.

“He was a popular person, right?” lawyer Larry Tipton asked. Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi upheld the prosecution’s objection to that question.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Luis M. Matos asked Testa if the Mancini senior center is in what was Celona’s senatorial district. “Yes,” she replied. And Matos asked if the center was one of Celona’s constituents. “Yes,” she replied.

One of the owners of The Village at Elmhurst, Diane Sangermano, testified about marketing efforts for the assisted-living center. Jurors saw the minutes of an August 2000 “marketing meeting” that mentioned “the Celona idea.” Sangermano explained that Celona had a cable-access television show on health care. “We’d give John an outline of what we wanted to get across on the show,” she said.

Sangermano also testified about a December 2000 meeting, which Celona attended, to plan a groundbreaking ceremony at The Village at Elmhurst. She said Celona, Urciuoli and Driscoll spoke at the ceremony.

When asked what topics Celona addressed in his speech, Sangermano said, “The benefits of assisted living — what a great place Elmhurst was.” When asked if she recalled anything else Celona said, Sangermano said, “He loved The Village — what a wonderful place it was.”

Prosecutors objected, and Lisi asked if that was what she specifically recalled Celona saying that day. “He always said the same thing, your honor,” Sangermano replied, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

The defense is expected to present witnesses for two or three more days, including Jennifer DeLuca, who oversaw marketing and public relations at The Village at Elmhurst.

efitzpat@projo.com