By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — When former Sen. William Irons was mentioned in connection with the CVS bribery trial it was interesting.
When TV megastar Oprah Winfrey was discussed it was somewhat amusing.
But it became downright surreal on Wednesday when the name of former New England Patriots football coach Bill “The Big Tuna” Parcells was invoked as the subject of testimony in the U.S. District Court trial of two former CVS executives, Jack Kramer and Carlos Ortiz, charged with nearly two dozen counts of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud.

With jailed former Lincoln-North Providence Sen. John Celona, the government’s star witness, on the stand for the third straight day, Kramer lawyer Scott Corrigan displayed a March 1997 letter Celona sent to the then-New York Jets football coach on the letterhead of The Image Group, offering his public relations and consulting services.
In the letter, Celona suggests he could, “train you and your team to manage the news and the media in a way that is positive and beneficial to you and the Jets.”
There was no evidence of a response from Parcells.
Celona admitted that The Image Group, part of his effort to obtain full-time employment after his family’s lawnmower shop closed, “never got off the ground.” He acknowledged that he “sent out hundreds of resumes” in an effort to find a job.
Oprah became part of the proceedings on Tuesday when, toward the end of direct examination, Celona told of talking with Kramer at a December 2001, event and Kramer asking if Celona was “all set” with Christmas gifts for his wife, Karleen.
Celona responded that he was, but that she really wanted to attend a taping of Winfrey’s syndicated television show.
Working first through CVS’s national advertising staff, then Channel 10 General Manager Lisa Churchville, Kramer obtained the tickets in January, procuring Celona an Oprah T-shirt and hat “to put under the tree.”
The Parcells interlude came during an otherwise unremarkable day of testimony, the second day Celona underwent cross-examination.
Corrigan spent much of the day trying to contradict Celona’s earlier contention that he never performed any of the public relations and community outreach that was the ostensible purpose of his $1,000 a month consulting contract with the drug store giant.
He pointed out several pieces of legislation — allowing the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, increasing the minimum wage, allowing plaintiffs to obtain triple damages in certain lawsuits — that Celona supported, voted for, and scheduled hearings on as a Senate committee chairman, which were opposed by CVS.
The defense attorney also presented numerous transcripts of Celona’s cable access TV show, The Celona Statehouse Report, questioning the former lawmaker about one after another, many featuring Kramer as a guest, where they promoted the CVS Charity Classic golf tournament or the CVS Downtown 5K road race for several years running.
Both with the stenographic transcript of his TV shows and reports of his meeting with federal investigators, Celona adamantly refused to acknowledge that he said exactly what the documents quoted him as saying.
“I don’t recollect saying that,” Celona said on several occasions, telling Corrigan he “probably said something like” what the written documents say, adding that he could not verify that they were “verbatim.
“I’m not being obstinate,” Celona said in a few of his responses when refusing to accept Corrigan’s characterization of an issue. When Celona tried to give his own explanation of events several times, he was admonished by Judge Mary Lisi to “Listen to the question and answer the question” without volunteering additional information.
Toward the end of the day, Corrigan tried to snag Celona on another detail, noting that Celona had testified that Kramer told him his consulting relationship would have to end in August 2003, because of the publicity surrounding House Minority Leader Gordon Fox’s business relationship with gambling giant GTECH. Fox acknowledged doing work as an attorney for GTECH and paid a $10,000 fine to the Rhode Islands Ethics Commission.
But Corrigan presented him with a document, not shown to the jury or courtroom spectators, that he said showed that the first press report about Fox and GTECH appeared on Oct. 1, 2003, several weeks after Celona’s golf course conversation with Kramer.
Celona answered that he did not know for sure that the Oct. 1 press report was indeed the first concerning Fox and GTECH, then noted “there was talk around the State House corridors several weeks before.”