litigate a resolution to the court case

Summit County jurors were unable to reach a verdict on whether former FirstEnergy executives committed bribery in what’s been called the largest public corruption scheme in Ohio history.

The jury had been deadlocked on whether former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and VP Mike Dowling bribed former Public Utilities Commission Chair Sam Randazzo with $4.3 million to get beneficial rulings.

Dowling’s attorney released the following statement about the hung jury:

A Summit County jury failed to reach a verdict on all seven counts against Michael J. Dowling. The jury’s determination follows a six-week jury trial before Summit County Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross.

“We appreciate the jury’s attention to the evidence and their service in this case,” said John McCaffrey of Tucker Ellis LLP. “We will be filing a motion for judgment of acquittal, and we will continue in our defense of Mr. Dowling.”

The possibility of a mistrial was first made public when the jury wrote a note to Judge Susan Baker Ross on Monday afternoon, asking, “If we cannot agree on the charge of bribery, do we evaluate the other charges?”

What the jury doesn’t know while deliberating the FirstEnergy corruption case

If ruled a mistrial, the case can be retried by the prosecution.

Along with likely facing another lengthy state trial, Jones and Dowling are both federally charged with racketeering. They have also been accused of spending $61 million to help create and pass House Bill 6. H.B. 6 was legislation to provide a billion-dollar bailout for the struggling company.

The jury went into deliberation without key pieces of evidence that could bolster the prosecution’s case, ones that weren’t allowed to be brought up during the trial. Not only were they not told that FirstEnergy, as a company, already admitted to this bribery, but they weren’t informed that former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is currently sitting in prison due to accepting FirstEnergy’s bribes.

Ohio Attorney Dave Yost posted a video on YouTube stating that the State of Ohio will retry the case.

“Justice needs to be done,” Yost said in the video.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.