Ex-Pilot Flying J President Hazelwood, Two Others, to Be Retried
Former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood shown with wife Joanne in September 2018, was sentenced to 150 months in prison and fined $750,000. (Caitie McMekin/Knoxville News Sentinel)
There is no question now that former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood and two former company executives, already convicted of cheating truckers out of diesel fuel rebates, will be retried on federal criminal charges.
What remains unknown, though, is when?
At a telephonic federal court hearing Feb. 18, prosecutors and defense attorneys for the three former executives offered differing dates to begin the defendants’ joint trial sometime in the fall. A significant unknown factor is whether it would be safe for a jury, prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses and the public to be crammed into a relatively small courtroom in Chattanooga, Tenn., if the COVID-19 pandemic has not subsided.