By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Week one of the CVS bribery trial ended Friday with neither the jury nor spectators getting a glimpse of the state’s star witness, former Sen. John Celona, who is serving time in federal prison for his part in the alleged scheme for him to help pass or kill legislation at the behest of the pharmacy giant.

Celona, who was also a key witness in the trial of Roger Williams Medical Center executives that led to convictions that were later overturned, is expected to testify next week about the $1,000 a month “consultant fee” he received from the drug store chain and how it affected his vote and other actions in the Rhode Island Senate.
Former CVS executives John Kramer and Carlos Ortiz are on trial in U.S. District Court before Judge Mary Lisi on 23 charges that include conspiracy, honest services mail fraud and bribery. The trial is expected to last at least three more weeks.
On Friday, David Rickard, chief financial officer of CVS Caremark Corp. testified that he did not know that Kramer and Ortiz had put Celona on the company’s payroll. Then, on cross-examination, he said he often didn't know who the company hired as consultants, and that they could be hired without his prior approval.
Rickard said he met Celona at several functions, but no one told him Celona was working directly for the company.
Rickard is one of a parade of witnesses giving the jury a peek into the inner workings of the Woonsocket-based pharmacy corporation. Particulars such as how Celona’s payments were accounted for in the company’s budget  -- as political contributions – have been scrutinized in detail.
The government claims that putting Celona on the payroll as a consultant was CVS’s way of laundering bribe payments for his influence on legislation that was important to the company. The defense says he was paid for promoting the company and its various charitable efforts on his onetime cable television show The Celona Statehouse Report, and for talking up the company at senior citizen centers and residential complexes. He was paid about $45,000 between 2000 and 2003.
Celona pleaded guilty to a slew of bribery and other charges and is serving a 2 and a half year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
The trial is part of a federal investigation into influence peddling at the Statehouse, which prosecutors have dubbed "Operation Dollar Bill."