KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Four years after the last ill-fated trial, a new date has been set for three former Pilot Co. employees accused of taking part in a sales scheme to defraud some trucking companies of promised fuel rebates.
The retrial for Mark Hazelwood, the former Pilot president, Scott Wombold, a former Pilot vice president, and Heather Jones will be Feb. 1, 2022, in Chattanooga, according to an order put down Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Curtis Collier.
The retrial is expected to take some 30 in-court days, and the judge doesn't expect to work Fridays. The last trial started in November 2017, and a verdict wasn't returned until the day after Valentine's Day 2018.
It'll be the second go-round for the defendants, attorneys, and the federal government. Hazelwood and Wombold have signaled they want a different location and a recusal for the next trial.
In October, an appeals court panel in Cincinnati tossed their convictions, finding Collier had improperly let in racially charged recordings secretly made during a 2012 private gathering of Pilot sales employees.
The court agreed with defense attorneys the evidence was so prejudicial that Hazelwood, Wombold and Jones couldn't get a fair trial.
The recordings, made by a cooperating witness in the federal investigation, showed Hazelwood -- not Wombold or Jones -- using racially offensive language and requesting the playing of a 1980s David Allen Coe song that uses the N-word repeatedly.
Lawyers for Hazelwood, Wombold and Jones strongly objected to introducing the recordings during the trial in January 2018. Collier let them in, but cautioned jurors they didn't apply and shouldn't be considered against Wombold or Jones.
Hazelwood, Wombold and Jones, a former Pilot account representative, were subsequently convicted and sentenced.
Hazelwood got 12 1/2 years and a $750,000 fine. Wombold got six years and a $75,000 fine. Jones got 2 1/2 years.
That's all moot now. The men also has recovered the fines that they paid after sentencing. All three are free awaiting the retrial.
Federal authorities raided Pilot headquarters in Bearden on April 15, 2013.
More than a dozen former employees have pleaded guilty. Pilot paid a $92 million fine in 2014, just one form of the punishment the privately held company faced as a result of the sales scheme.