Federal judge sets Householder trial for Jan. 23, with jury selection to begin Jan. 20

Larry Householder

State Rep. Larry Householder testifies last year against resolutions seeking to expel him from the House for his alleged role in the House Bill 6 scandal. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A federal judge Friday set a Jan. 23 trial for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matthew Borges in the House Bill 6 scandal.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black has estimated the racketeering case will run at least six weeks in his Cincinnati courtroom. Black’s order Friday includes a schedule for hearings. The first is set for April 25 in which the judge will preside over various motions. Those may include Householder’s request to have the case dismissed.

Jury selection is to begin Jan. 20.

Prosecutors had sought to have the case set for either late fall or next year, citing its complexity. It is unclear whether they will seek to indict others.

The trial will include evidence gleaned from thousands of pages of documents involving the bill, which offered a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear plants that had been owned by a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.

The bill was signed into law in 2019, but key portions of it, including the bailout, were repealed last year.

“I know Larry is anxious to have his day in court, and we now know when that day will be,” said Steven Bradley, one of Householder’s attorneys.

One of Borges’ attorneys, Karl Schneider, agreed: “Matt would have preferred to have gone in the fall, but we’re happy that we have a definitive date.”

Prosecutors have said Householder engineered the $60 million bribery scheme involving FirstEnergy and a nonprofit that he and his associates used as a “slush fund,” according to prosecutors’ filings.

Borges pushed for the defeat of a referendum of the bill. He paid a person who had worked on the referendum effort $15,000 to gain inside information about the petition drive, prosecutors said.

Householder’s attorneys, Mark Marein and Bradley, have said the payments were campaign contributions made to a nonprofit, Generation Now. Borges’ attorneys have said their client paid the money for other projects, rather than on the referendum fight.

Last summer, FirstEnergy admitted that it bankrolled House Bill 6, and it agreed to pay a $230 million fine to the government for its role. No employee of the company has been charged.

Householder’s aide, Jeffrey Longstreth, and lobbyist Juan Cespedes were the first to plead guilty. They admitted to the charges in October 2020, just months after they were indicted. Generation Now also has pleaded guilty, forfeiting about $1.5 million.

A fifth person charged, Neil Clark, died by suicide last year.

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