Ex-GOP Ohio House speaker sentenced to 20 years for role in $60M bribery scheme; appeal expected
CINCINNATI — Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for his role in the largest corruption scandal in state history and taken immediately into custody, a judge declaring that “the court and the community’s patience with Larry Householder has expired.”
The 64-year-old Republican tensed only slightly as U.S. District Judge Timothy Black meted out the punishment, the maximum under the law, and appeared somewhat disoriented as U.S. Marshals placed him in handcuffs. He glanced back briefly at his wife, Taundra, who exited the courtroom with his Perry County Ducks Unlimited ball cap folded in her hands.
Ahead of his sentencing, Householder stood before Black to make a personal appeal for leniency, saying it was not himself that a harsh prison sentence would hurt most but his spouse of 40 years, his sons, grandchildren and friends.
“I wasn’t power hungry. I went home,” he said of his departure from the Ohio House between speakerships. Householder told the judge that he and his wife had given “every ounce of energy we have to make life better for others.”
In a blistering rebuke, Black threw back at Householder evidence counter to the family man image he had presented. He quoted Householder’s own statements, presented at trial, saying: “If you’re going to f—- with me, I’m going to f—- with your kids,” “we can f— with him later” and “f—- him ‘til he’s dead.”
Black called Householder “a bully with a lust for power” whose scheme marked an “assault on democracy, the betrayal of everyone in Ohio.” That included the Ohioans who donated to, campaigned for and voted for Householder, the judge said.
“That wasn’t their way of just saying I like you or I support you. What they were saying is I’m choosing to trust you,” said Black. “They trusted you to do right by them, and you betrayed their trust.”
Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, were both convicted in March of a single racketeering charge each, after a six-week trial. Borges is set to be sentenced Friday.
Jurors found that Householder orchestrated and Borges participated in a $60 million bribery scheme secretly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. to secure Householder’s power, elect his allies, pass legislation containing a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear power plants owned by a FirstEnergy affiliate and then to use a dirty tricks campaign to stifle a ballot effort to overturn the bill.
