The conviction of the Pilot executives has now been overthrown on appeal because of the decision by Judge Collier to include taped conversation between the accused that had absolutely nothing to do with the case. But just because there were some racial slurs the judge just had to get it into evidence so the taxpayers will now incur the cost of another expensive trial. There were also derogatory comments made about UT football fans that also had nothing to do with the fraud rebates going on.
I am not a lawyer but this would appear to be about as slam dunk a case that the government could have.
If the defendants had only cheated a certain demographic group I could see how a judge would consider admitting the tapes into evidence. But that was not the case - these despicable executives cheated people of every race.
Why are judges the only occupation that aren't held accountable in any way for their mistakes? Perhaps when a judge is over-ruled on appeal they should be responsible for the costs of the new trial.
Douglas Jones
Ooltewah