NORTH PROVIDENCE -- The investigation of possible corruption at
the State House entered a new phase yesterday, as state police
detectives searched the house of Sen. John A. Celona and seized computer
equipment and boxes of records.
Later, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch confirmed that a grand jury has
been convened to investigate lawmakers, lobbyists and private consulting
arrangements.
Meanwhile, Sen. Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed last night for the
first time called for Celona's resignation.
Shortly after noon yesterday, detectives arrived at Celona's handsome
brick house, at 51 Pinewood Drive, armed with a search warrant, the
first to be served in a State House probe that began around Christmas
time.
The longtime North Providence Democratic senator, who has come under
scrutiny for his financial ties to the health-care community that he
helped regulate, was not at home. But his wife, Karleen, was.
Celona, whose presence was not required, did not show up as seven
detectives spent the afternoon searching his house, while news reporters
and camera crews gathered outside in the wet snow. In the front yard, a
large American flag and a flag celebrating the New England Patriots'
2002 Super Bowl title flew from a flagpole.
The detectives, from the state police's financial crimes and cybercrime
units, arrived at 12:20 p.m. and stayed until 4:45 p.m. A uniformed
trooper stood outside as detectives carted away boxes of records, a
computer hard drive, a laptop computer and a pile of large yellow
envelopes filled with papers. Celona, a private consultant, runs his
business out of his house.
The search warrant will be sealed because of the continuing
investigation. The state police and the attorney general declined
comment on what they were looking for, or what they found.
"We executed a search warrant today as part of our ongoing
investigation," said Capt. Stephen J. Lynch, the detective commander of
the state police.
Celona could not be reached for comment. One of his lawyers, William C.
Dimitri, arrived at the house in response to a phone call from Karleen
Celona, after the state police had begun their search.
"We didn't know they were coming until they showed up," said Dimitri.
Dimitri said that he spoke by phone with Celona, who recently took a job
as a mortgage broker after losing his main source of income, as a
consultant to the Village at Elmhurst, a Providence assisted-living
center partially owned by Roger Williams Medical Center.
"I told him to stay at work," said Dimitri.
The warrant, which Dimitri said appeared to have been signed yesterday
morning by District Court Judge Michael Higgins, was a "very general"
demand for business records and ledgers.
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A state police investigator seizes materials from the home of North Providence state Sen. John Celona yesterday.
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The hard drive that the police seized was used by Celona's sons, said
Dimitri, and contained school work and computer games.
"The police said that they would look at it and return it if that's the
case," said Dimitri.
Late yesterday afternoon, Attorney General Lynch said that a grand jury
had recently convened as the investigation enters another stage.
"I said early on that it would take a month or two for us to get the lay
of the land, and I'd say we're right on schedule," said Lynch (no
relation to the state police detective commander). "I use the analogy of
an iceberg. We've all seen the tip and we're wondering how deep and how
wide it runs beneath the water. [The search warrant and the grand jury]
are just other tools for us to utilize to get to the bottom of this."
Lynch said that his office and the state police "absolutely" continue to
consult with the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI. But while Lynch has
said that federal anti-corruption laws may be stronger in bringing any
possible charges, no decision has been made for federal authorities to
actively join the case.
Paiva Weed, D-Newport, became the the 19th senator to ask Celona to step
down. There are 37 senators and one vacant seat.
"I had previously stopped short of it," she said. "However, the events
of today have saddened me, as I care about the Senate as an institution,
and unfortunately, the continuous focus on the events surrounding
Senator Celona have distracted from the important work that the Senate
does."
"I certainly believe that Senator Celona should resign," she said.
The investigation stems from stories in The Providence Journal late last
year exploring Celona's relationship with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of
Rhode Island, which helped fund a public access TV show that the senator
cohosted, and with pharmacy giant CVS, which was paying Celona $1,000 a
month as a consultant -- a relationship that the senator failed to
report on his financial disclosure forms to the state Ethics Commission.
At the time, Celona chaired a Senate committee that regulated health
care. In that role, he helped kill a bill last year for pharmacy choice
that Blue Cross and CVS opposed.
The state police began investigating Celona shortly before Christmas.
Since then, their probe has widened to explore Celona's ties to the
Village at Elmhurst and its co-owner, the Roger Williams Medical Center.
The center had hired him back in 1998 after Celona had opposed a
hospital bill that would have hampered Roger Williams' efforts to merge
with an out-of-state health-care giant, Columbia HCA. (The deal never
went through.)
A spokesman for Roger Williams told The Journal last month that Celona's
consulting contract there -- the primary source of income he reported on
his Ethics Commission filings -- was not renewed after expiring Jan. 31.
Last month, The Journal reported that Celona also earns $1,200 a month
from the New England Ambulance Co., and had approached hospital
lobbyists at the State House in recent years seeking business for the
firm.
The firestorm over Celona quickly spread to the Senate president,
William V. Irons, an insurance broker who resigned at the end of
December rather than reveal whether CVS was an insurance client.
The Journal has since reported that Irons earned commissions on Blue
Cross health-insurance policies for CVS employees in Rhode Island,
including $100,000 over a three-year period, and that he flew on the CVS
corporate jet with CVS' chief executive, Thomas Ryan. Irons has come
under fire for opposing pharmacy-choice legislation that CVS also
opposed.
Celona, who relinquished his commerce committee chairmanship and also
faces Ethics Commission complaints, has resisted growing appeals from
his Senate colleagues to resign. Although he has kept a lower profile,
and declines to discuss his current troubles, he continues to show up at
the State House, where he has represented North Providence for the last
nine years.
Yesterday morning, Celona called a Journal reporter to weigh in on the
news that he will face a challenger for his Senate seat this year.
Town Council member Joseph Burchfield had said that Celona took the news
of his candidacy "hard." But Celona, who previously served on the Town
Council, said he welcomed the challenge.
"I told him my intentions in being exonerated," Celona said. "I wished
him well. I said, 'No one owns the seat.' . . . In 27 years, I've run
against everyone and anyone."
Recounting his accomplishments -- from fire safety to constituent
service -- Celona repeated that he will not resign, but also declined to
say whether he'll run again.
"I'm fine," he said, referring to what he dismissed as "just
allegations" against him. "I'm continuing to work hard, to do what I
have to do. You have to act as a professional. You have to move forward."
A few hours later, the state police appeared at Celona's door.
With staff reports from S.I. Rosenbaum
Mike Stanton can be reached at
mstanton [at] projo.com or at 277-7724.
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