Pilot Flying J has asked a federal judge to dismiss several lawsuits filed against the company in connection with a diesel fuel rebate scheme. Pilot last year reached an $85 million civil settlement with trucking customers, but several companies opted out of that settlement and pursued their own litigation. In a motion filed with the court, Pilot argued among other things that racketeering claims filed by some plaintiffs failed to adequately allege the elements of a RICO conspiracy, and that certain fraud claims failed the "particularity requirements" of the law. On the criminal side,10 former Pilot employees have pleaded guilty in the case. Prosecutors have said the criminal enforcement agreement with the company does not protect other individuals from prosecution. Knoxnews has more.

The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct has dismissed a complaint filed this summer against Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade by activist George Scoville, Tom Humphrey’s Knoxblog reports. “Both disciplinary counsel and the investigative panel investigated and considered your complaint very seriously and felt it raised an area of concern that has been addressed, however the panel decided the complaint did not rise to the level of judicial misconduct that is required for disciplinary action to be taken in the form of a reprimand or censure,” Board Chair Chris Craft wrote in the letter dismissing the complaint.

The 15th Annual Shelby Bottoms Boogie 5K run/walk and 15K race will be held Saturday at the Dripping Bird Activity Area in Shelby Bottoms Park. For the seventh consecutive year, this Nashville Striders race event benefits CASA Nashville. Registration is $30 in advance and $35 on race day, with day-of registration and packet pickup beginning at 6 a.m. The 5K will begin at 7:30 a.m., and the 15K will begin at 7:40 a.m. Awards will be presented to the top three male and female finishers in various age groups for both the 5K and 15K categories. For more information or to register, vsit the CASA website. 

Dignitaries from across the state gathered in Knoxville today to mark the formal investiture of Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Lee, who was elected to a one-year term as chief justice by her fellow justices, outlined several goals she has for the judiciary. She suggested a “top to bottom review” to see how the courts can be better stewards of tax dollars and deliver services more efficiently and effectively. She also emphasized the need for better use of technology, such as the implementation of electronic filing systems. Lee also talked about the contentious retention elections and noted how they had put the judiciary in the spotlight and underscored the need for fair and impartial courts. “Tennessee got a civics lesson about the importance of checks and balances and the necessity of a separate and independent judiciary,” she said. “Our courts play a fundamental role in protecting individual rights, providing predictability to business and in guaranteeing the fair functioning of our government.”

The Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee held two hearings this week to discuss criminal justice reform in the state. Led by Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, the group focused on what other states are doing and what Tennessee should do to reduce prison populations and recidivism. The committee heard from a wide range of interest groups on the matter, from the ACLU of Tennessee on the left to the nonpartisan VERA Institute of Justice in the middle to the conservative Heritage Foundation on the right. Oddly enough, the groups agreed on many of the fixes, the Tennessean reports. They also share the view that Tennessee has a criminal justice problem: it locks up more people than most states but had the highest rate of violent crime in 2012.

The Chattanooga office of Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) won the second place $10,000 prize at the “The Greater Race” last Saturday morning in downtown Chattanooga in celebration of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga’s 50th anniversary. The foundation selected 25 Chattanooga non-profits it has funded in the past to take part in the geo adventure race. Each of the selected organizations supplied a team of four racers on bicycles and two additional volunteers.

The Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments will consider six applicants for the circuit court vacancy in the 21st Judicial District, which serves Hickman, Lewis, Perry and Williamson counties. The applicants are: Joseph D. Baugh Jr., Stacey Michelle Brackeen Edmondson, Deanna B. Johnson, Connie L. Reguli, David Henry Veile and Terry E. Wood. The vacancy was created by the appointment of Judge Timothy Easter to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, effective Sept. 1. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more on each candidate.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will celebrate the grand reopening of its Bradley County office tomorrow at noon. The new office is located at 166 North Ocoee, directly across from the Bradley County Courthouse. Thursday’s celebration will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by tours of the new office. Local dignitaries, United Way leadership, judges, members of the Bradley County Bar Association, and a representative from Gov. Haslam’s office are expected to attend. “In 2010, LAET’s budget was devastated by deep cuts in our federal appropriation, and we were forced to close our Cleveland office,” Russell Fowler, associate director for LAET’s Southern Region said in a press release. “But civil legal needs for low-income Bradley Countians have continued to increase. United Way recognized those needs and worked to form a partnership with LAET. The reopening of the Cleveland office is due in large part to that partnership.”

Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to postpone his Oct. 7 execution pending the outcome of a challenge to Tennessee's execution protocol, WRCB reports. Last December, the court moved Irick's execution date from January to October because of the pending lawsuit. Irick and nine other death row inmates are challenging the state's new one-drug lethal injection protocol, which replaces a three-drug protocol. The attorney general's office argues that other states have found similar one-drug protocols to be constitutional.

A state appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentence of Letalvis Cobbins, one of the men convicted of participating in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Knoxville couple Channon Christian and Chris Newsom in 2007. Cobbins claimed his trial was tainted by the drug use and misconduct of former Knoxville Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, who resigned from the bench and pleaded guilty to official misconduct in March 2011. A three-judge panel of the Court of Criminal Appeals found that the Tennessee Supreme Court already ruled that Baumgartner's conduct outside the courtroom did not prevent Cobbins from receiving a fair trial. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has more.