Attorneys for former Pilot Travel Centers president Mark Hazelwood are asking that he be allowed to spend Christmas with his family before self-reporting to begin serving a 12 years and six months federal prison sentence.
Judge Curtis Collier of Chattanooga on Sept. 26 allowed Hazelwood to remain at his Knoxville home until after Thanksgiving. He set the report date at Nov. 26.
Hazelwood attorneys Bradley Henry and Jim Walden noted that since then Judge Collier allowed two co-defendants, Heather Jones and Scott Wombold, to stay out until Jan. 7.
The attorneys asked that Hazelwood be given the same report date.
The motion says, "Mr. Hazelwood has flawlessly abided the terms of his pretrial release. For years, he has conformed his conduct to every instruction of his Pretrial Services officer. Most recently, Mr. Hazelwood has reaffirmed his commitment to following the Court’s order while on home incarceration. Mr. Hazelwood has spent every day since mid-February at his home on electronic monitoring. His home is inspected regularly by Pretrial Services.
"On several occasions, Mr. Hazelwood has taken affirmative steps to notify Pretrial that he has experienced issues with his electronic monitoring device and kept in constant communication with his officer through phone and email communication. On the few instances he was permitted or required to be out of his home, he faithfully followed the directions of, and complied with instructions from, Pretrial Services. Mr. Hazelwood has shown no indication that an extension of time to self-surrender would cause any hardship or unwarranted delay in his surrender to the BOP.
"Mr. Hazelwood is a devout Christian. The Court read many letters at sentencing detailing Mr. Hazelwood’s devotion to his Christian faith and his active participation in weekly Bible study. Mr. Hazelwood’s desire to spend time with his family over the holiday – perhaps the last Christmas he will spend with his family for many years – is rooted in not only his family values, but his deeply held religious beliefs."