Urciuoli PROVIDENCE –– Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president of Roger Williams Medical Center, is trying to convince a judge that he should not be retried on federal corruption charges because prosecutors improperly pressured the hospital to fire him and stop paying for his legal defense.

As a result, Urciuoli says, he has been deprived of his constitutional rights, owes more than $500,000 in legal fees and has seen his personal finances deteriorate from his heyday, when he was paid more than $400,000 a year as Roger Williams’ high-flying CEO, to a meager $9,000 in earnings in the two years since his indictment.

Yesterday, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi rejected an affidavit in support of Urciuoli from his old friend and a former hospital director –– ex-Lt. Gov. Richard Licht.

Licht says in his May 14 affidavit that government investigators probing Urciuoli’s hiring of state Sen. John A. Celona gave hospital lawyers the impression that “if the hospital did not terminate Mr. Urciuoli and immediately stop (paying) him for his legal fees, the hospital would be prosecuted.”