CHICAGO — The judge overseeing the bribery trial of former AT&T Illinois boss Paul La Schiazza, accused of funneling payments to an ally of Michael Madigan to win the speaker’s support, has declared a mistrial in the case.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman announced his decision Thursday afternoon, a few hours after the jury had communicated to the court that they appeared to be deadlocked.

“What happens if we feel we are at a stalemate and feel that it won’t change?” a note sent out by the jury early Thursday said. The judge had sent the panel back to do more work.

Gettleman Thursday afternoon said a follow-up note indicated the situation had not improved.

“We believe there is no possibility of coming to a unanimous verdict,” the next note read.

The only earlier communication from the jury came Wednesday morning, when the panel sent the judge a note reading: “The government indicates that for a bribe there only needs to be ‘intent’ and no exchange. Is this consistent with the law?”

This question seemed to hit at the heart of the case. Gettleman called the jury back out and reread several pages of the jury instructions dealing with the elements of the bribery counts, then urged them to read it again back in the jury room.

The instructions define bribery as a person giving or offering something of value to another person “with the intent to influence or reward an agents of state government in exchange for an official act.”

Gettleman told the lawyers he was not surprised by the confusion because the issue is complicated.

La Schiazza, 66, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in October 2022 with conspiracy, federal program bribery and using a facility in interstate commerce to promote unlawful activity. The most serious counts carry up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The trial, which proceeded far quicker than the original three-week estimate, has offered an advance look at evidence that will be presented at Madigan’s own racketeering trial, which kicks off in less than three weeks.

According to prosecutors, La Schiazza schemed to pay retiring state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, a longtime Madigan acolyte, a total of $22,500 over nine months for doing little or no work for AT&T, even though he ostensibly was supposed to produce a report on the Latino caucuses in Springfield and Chicago’s City Hall.

The arrangement, which was pushed by close Madigan confidant Michael McClain, came as AT&T was looking to pass the COLR bill, which stood to save the company hundreds of millions of dollars, according to trial testimony.

In closing arguments Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sushma Raju said the wheeling and dealing gave Acevedo a payday, La Schiazza a notch in his belt and AT&T the bill they had coveted for decades. But it left one constituency in the lurch.

“It shorted the people of Illinois, who deserved a fair, transparent and honest legislative process,” Raju said. “What we got instead was a legislative process that was tainted by this defendant, who paid for the result he wanted. It was not lobbying … it was a crime, and Paul La Schiazza knew it.”

But the defense painted a far different picture, one of common and legal dealings between the corporate and political worlds, where companies routinely seek to curry favor with politicians in order to get them to consider their agenda.

The legislation AT&T wanted passed, known by the acronym COLR, “took years of legitimate, tireless hard work,” and not just by La Schiazza, defense attorney Tinos Diamantatos told the jury in his closing remarks.

“It was a team effort by AT&T to get something done lawfully and appropriately as the law allows them to do,” Diamantatos said. “This was no bribe. … The government failed to meet its burden. It wasn’t even close.”

Echoing arguments in the “ComEd Four” trial last year that featured similar accusations of bribing Madigan, Diamantatos on Tuesday called La Schiazza collateral damage in the government’s zeal to bring down the powerful speaker, and urged jurors to end the “nightmare” La Schiazza has been living since finding himself in the prosecution’s crosshairs.

Madigan, 82, and McClain, 76, are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 8 on racketeering charges alleging Madigan’s vaunted state and political operations were run like a criminal enterprise while utility giants Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois put his cronies on contracts requiring little or no work.

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