Jury in FirstEnergy bribery trial at ‘impasse’ on verdict, judge says
By Adam Ferrise
Published on March 30, 2026.
Jurors in the FirstEnergy bribery trial are at an impasse on the eighth day of deliberations. Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and lobbyist Michael Dowling are accused of bribing a state utility regulator with $4.3 million in exchange for official actions worth over $1 billion to the company. If the jury continues to deliberate, the case could result in a mistrial or a retrial. Prosecutors claim that Jones and Dowling bribed Sam Randazzo in 2018, months before he was appointed chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The payment was a payment for a legal settlement that FirstEnergy's then-owner, RandazzO, negotiated before the initial multi-million-dollar settlement.
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