Defense lawyers for FirstEnergy’s ex-CEO and ex-senior vice president, accused of waging a $4.3 million bribery scheme to capture the head of a state regulatory agency, rested their case on Thursday. 

Their decision means neither defendant will testify in their own defense. Attorneys for Chuck Jones, the former CEO, and Mike Dowling, head of the company’s lobbying arm, indicated to Judge Susan Baker Ross that they made their decision Thursday morning. 

Testifying would be a risky decision, offering the defendants a chance to address the jury directly, but risking exposure to cross-examination from prosecutors. 

Ross required each man to verbally confirm they wouldn’t speak in their own defense. 

“I waive my right to testify,” Jones said, echoing the same sentiment from Dowling. 

With that, the stage is set for closing arguments and jury deliberations in what’s likely the biggest accusation of public corruption against corporate officials in state history. 

Jones and Dowling are accused of bribing Sam Randazzo, an attorney who was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in early 2019 to lead the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Jones made the final decision to pay Randazzo $4.3 million in January 2019, shortly before the appointment. 

Randazzo died by suicide in April 2024, under state and federal indictment, leaving others to narrate and gauge the scope of his alleged culpability as the defendants have depicted him as the lone lawbreaker. 

Their defense limited their case to just three fact witnesses from the company and Ohio politics, and one forensic expert to deliver two main points. (For comparison, prosecutors called 26 witnesses, including a video recording of a deposition Dowling gave in 2023.)

For one, the defendants said FirstEnergy’s first preference for the opening on the PUCO was an attorney named Jason Rafeld, not Randazzo. For two, they say Randazzo was a sophisticated thief who systematically stole from his legal clients – and the $4.3 million from FirstEnergy was intended for Randazzo’s legal client and not Randazzo personally. 

Both ideas weaken the notion that FirstEnergy bribed Randazzo. As the defense has argued, one wouldn’t bribe a candidate they didn’t prefer. And if FirstEnergy understood its money went to Randazzo’s clients and not to Randazzo personally, it couldn’t be a bribe. 

Prosecutors attacked both concepts via witnesses, text messages and emails indicating Jones and Dowling worked closely with Randazzo, discussing paying him the $4.3 million and his accepting the PUCO chairmanship in the same text thread. Prosecutors emphasized the unusual nature of the 2015 document memorializing what defense lawyers have insisted was a legitimate legal settlement that called for the $4.3 million payment – no witnesses have seen a signed copy of it; it mentions only Randazzo but not his clients; it doesn’t reference the number of the case; and Jones, Dowling and Randazzo all took different steps to keep the relationship and the settlement document a secret (including from Randazzo’s clients). 

The state attorneys are also relying on the facts of Randazzo’s tenure – demonstrating to jurors different episodes of FirstEnergy seeking regulatory and lobbying help from Randazzo, and Randazzo coming through for the company. 

That included a vivid retelling of Jones predicting to investors in 2019 that FirstEnergy wouldn’t undergo an ominous rate review it expected in 2024 – a prediction that would come true by a PUCO order, led by Randazzo and lobbied for months by FirstEnergy, less than two weeks after Jones’ prediction.

‘They were advocating for Jason Rafeld’

Two defense witnesses offered compelling evidence to suggest that at some point in the PUCO chair hiring process, FirstEnergy wanted Rafeld, who testified to the point himself. 

“I felt very clearly and confidently that FirstEnergy had offered their support should I choose to pursue the chair position, and they made me feel certain that they would be 100% behind me and do whatever they could to help install me in that role,” he said. 

Likewise, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who took on something of a factfinding role for the PUCO slot as DeWine’s lieutenant governor, offered similar testimony. 

“They were advocating for Jason Rafeld,” he said. 

Rafeld testified that he didn’t ultimately apply for the job. He said he coalesced support from FirstEnergy and other regulated utilities, but received a call from an intermediary passing on a message from Husted. He said he was told not to apply, out of respect for the wishes of a new governor. Husted testified he didn’t remember the call. 

While evidence corroborates the claim that FirstEnergy supported Rafeld early in his shadow campaign, prosecutors are hoping jurors infer from a series of text messages that FirstEnergy shifted its support. 

Take Jones, in a text sent to Randazzo on December 19 after a meeting the night before and shown to jurors: “We’re gonna get this handled this year, paid in full, no discount.”

Or Randazzo’s response: “I think I said this last night but just in case – if asked by the administration to go for the Chair spot, I would say yes.”

Later that day, Jones told Dowling in a text that Husted told him the administration was leaning against Rafeld: “I love Sam and all will be well if he’s the chair.”

Or when Dowling indicated to Jones that Randazzo was planning to pull out of consideration after an advocacy journalist identified an unspecified financial connection disclosed between Randazzo and FirstEnergy Solutions, Jones texted “Great. Now we have no one on the list.”

What’s next

Ross, the judge, also ruled Thursday that she would not dismiss the case, as defense attorneys requested due to claims of prosecutorial misconduct. 

“I believe we’ve had a fair trial, despite all the things that have happened,” she said. 

With that, the parties will return for several hours of closing arguments, to be followed by jury deliberations.