A jury in Akron hearing bribery and corruption charges against former CEO Chuck Jones and former senior vice president Michael Dowling is unable to come to a verdict.
This comes on what would have been the jury's ninth day of deliberations, and a day after they had told Summit County Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross they were at an impasse.
Ross dismissed the jury and thanked them for their work. Prosecutors asked for a hearing on a new trial to be set in 30 days, while defense attorneys want the judge to declare a mistrial.
Jones and Dowling are accused of paying a $4.3 million bribe to the late Sam Randazzo as he became Public Utilities Commission chair while the billion-dollar nuclear power plant bailout known as House Bill 6 was coming forward.Their lawyers have said Randazzo wasn’t a public official when they paid him money that was intended for clients he was representing, and he stole it. Randazzo died by suicide in 2024 after pleading not guilty alongside Jones and Dowling.
Attorney General Dave Yost praised the prosecutors, including those who are part of his staff, in a recorded statement. And he thanked the jury, as he noted they were hung.
"That means they deliberated for a long time and couldn't get to a verdict that they all agreed on. That means somebody didn't think they were guilty and some people thought they were beyond a reasonable doubt," Yost said in the statement. "The state of Ohio can and will retry these defendants. Justice needs to be done."
“We appreciate the jury’s attention to the evidence and their service in this case,” said John McCaffrey of Tucker Ellis LLP, the firm representing Dowling, wrote in an emailed statement. “We will be filing a motion for judgment of acquittal, and we will continue in our defense of Mr. Dowling.”
Testimony in the trial ended after the defense presented three witnesses, including U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH). Neither Jones nor Dowling took the stand. The prosecution had 26 witnesses over several weeks.
Jones and Dowling also face federal charges in connection with the scandal. Former House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges were convicted on similar charges in federal court in 2023 in connection with pushing HB 6 through the legislature. Householder, who's in prison on a 20-year sentence, is also facing state charges of misuse of campaign money and ethics violations. FirstEnergy struck a plea deal on federal charges in 2021, paying $230 million in that agreement.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
