Prosecutors play racist tapes that mock Cleveland Browns, Dawg Pound in Pilot Flying J fraud trial

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee - Some former employees of Pilot Flying J, the family business of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, yelled highly offensive racial slurs about African Americans, mocked the Dawg Pound and ridiculed the Browns' struggles during an informal sales meeting in 2012, according to secretly recorded tapes played in court Wednesday.

One of those who made the slurs, former Pilot Flying J president Mark Hazelwood, is on trial with three others in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. They are accused of joining several other former sales executives in conspiring to fleece tens of millions of dollars from trucking companies in a rebate fraud.

Prosecutors played the tapes to counter evidence from Hazelwood's defense attorneys that the former president had great character and would never do anything to harm the company.

Haslam is not on the tapes. He has not been charged in the fraud scheme, and he denies allegations that he knew about the scheme. The statements from Hazelwood and the former sales executives came just months after Haslam purchased the Browns in 2012.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/01/prosecutors_play_racist_tapes.html