Convicted NP attorney wants new trial

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - One week before he must report to a federal prison, disgraced lawyer Robert Ciresi filed an appeal asking to be held on bail while he fights for a new trial.

Robert Ciresi, 78 of Scituate, submitted a 54-page document with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Monday.

His attorneys argued U.S. District Court Judge Mary Lisi erred by allowing secretly recorded conversations made by a government informant to be used as evidence during his trial.

On Aug. 3, Ciresi was sentenced to 63 months in prison after being found guilty in a high-profile corruption case.

“Potentially a death sentence at his advanced age,” Ciresi’s attorneys wrote in the appeal.

Ciresi was found guilty of conspiracy, two counts of bribery and obstruction of justice.

He was the only defendant out of five charged to go to trial. Three corrupt North Providence town councilmen agreed to plead guilty in April and are currently in prison.

At trial and in the appeal, Ciresi argued he should never have been charged with conspiracy because there was no evidence he took part in a second bribery scheme to shake down a developer looking to turn the Lymansville Mill into condos.

That charge centered on a recorded conversation between former town councilman John Zambarano and fellow councilman Paul Caranci, who was working with the FBI as an informant and wore a wire.

In the appeal, Ciresi’s lawyers said Zambarano did not testify at trial, robbing the defense the ability to question a key player in the case against him.

“Instead, [the recordings] constituted highly incriminating narratives of purely past events by an alleged coconspirator who was unavailable to be confronted at trial,” the appeal states. “[The recordings’] admission was, moreover, profoundly prejudicial to Ciresi with respect to all counts of conviction and, therefore, the Court’s decision of this issue in Ciresi’s favor would likely have resulted in an order for a new trial.”

• Read Ciresi's appeal

According to a U.S. District Court filing obtained by Target 12, federal plan to respond to the appeal on Wednesday.

Ciresi asked Judge Lisi to push back the date on which he must report to prison pending a decision by the appellate court, but prosecutors argued one week was plenty of time for a decision to be made on bail.

Ciresi is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on Aug. 31.

The federal corruption probe into North Providence Town Hall burst into the public’s view in May 2010 with the arrest of three town councilmen: Zambarano, former town council president Joseph Burchfield and former councilman Raymond Douglas. Also arrested and later pleading guilty was convicted bribery middleman Edward Imondi.

twhite@wpri.com