No, we're not going to change our minds.
That was the message Wednesday from an appellate panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, signaling it wouldn't take up federal prosecutors' request that it review its decision in October to toss the 2018 criminal convictions of Mark Hazelwood, former Pilot Co. president, and two co-workers.
Judges Richard Suhrheinrich and Eric Murphy ruled this fall that the government improperly introduced at trial highly prejudicial tape recordings showing Hazelwood -- and only Hazelwood -- making crude and racist comments during a 2012 gathering of Pilot sales executives.
Judge Bernice Donald dissented, and affirmed that dissent Wednesday.
Jurors eventually convicted Hazelwood, Scott Wombold and Heather Jones of charges that included fraud.
Senior Judge Curtis Collier in Chattanooga allowed the prosecutors to play the tapes over strenuous objections from Hazelwood's lawyers and counsel for Wombold and Jones.
Collier told jurors when the tapes were played in January 2018 that they had limited evidentiary use and applied only to Hazelwood, who had made millions while rising through Pilot's leadership ranks.
Defense for all three, however, said the tapes crossed the line, creating such a negative impression that jurors wouldn't be able to give them a fair trial.
Suhrheinrich and Murphy agreed.
Government prosecutor Trey Hamilton made a bid to get them to change their mind. With Wednesday's ruling, the judges made clear they weren't going to do that.
It's presumably now up to the government to start over -- if it wants to pursue the case. The trial was held in Chattanooga from late 2017 to early 2018 because of heavy publicity in the Knoxville area, where Pilot is based.