Jury Deadlocks in Trial of Ex–FirstEnergy Executives Over Alleged Bribery

Overview

• Jurors in Akron said they could not reach a unanimous verdict in the case against former FirstEnergy leaders Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling.
• Judge Susan Baker Ross said she will consider a mistrial motion, which could allow state prosecutors to retry the case.
• The panel deliberated for a full week and logged more than 50 hours without agreement, signaling how hard the evidence was for them to resolve.
• During deliberations, the court mistakenly sent jurors a confidential interview transcript and pages from a revised indictment, and the judge apologized and ordered them to disregard the materials.
• The charges center on a $4.3 million payment to Ohio’s future utility regulator Sam Randazzo, with broader context that FirstEnergy admitted in 2021 to funding a $60 million scheme tied to H.B. 6 and that ex–House Speaker Larry Householder later received a 20‑year sentence.