Families of some of the 346 people killed in crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners held photos of their dead loved ones Wednesday outside a federal court in Texas, where a judge is hearing arguments on the U.S. government's motion to dismiss a felony conspiracy charge against the aerospace company in connection with the twin disasters. U.S. District Chief Judge Reed O’Connor set aside time for relatives of the crash victims to speak during the hearing. Some traveled from countries in Europe and Africa to pursue what could be their final opportunity to demand that the company face criminal prosecution for the crashes off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. “My daughter died on a new airplane that was defective and that was in operation because they weren’t complying with regulations and because of fraud,” said Nadia Milleron, a Massachusetts resident whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, was among the 157 passengers and crew members killed in the Ethiopia crash. “I don’t want any other any other family member to lose their loved ones because of this kind of fraud.” In charging Boeing with conspiracy to defraud the government, prosecutors alleged Boeing deceived Federal Aviation Administration regulators about a flight-control system that was later implicated in the fatal flights, which happened less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019. The hearing in Fort Worth comes more than four years after the Justice Department announced it had charged Boeing and reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the aircraft maker. That deal would have protected Boeing from criminal prosecution if it strengthened its ethics and legal compliance programs. Prosecutors revived the charge last year after deciding the company had violated certain terms of the agreement. Boeing decided to plead guilty as part of a new agreement, but O’Connor rejected the deal in December. O'Connor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, cited concerns he had over how diversity policies both at the federal government and at Boeing could influence the selection of an independent monitor charged with overseeing the company's promised reforms. The judge’s refusal to accept the plea agreement meant the company was free to challenge the Justice Department’s rationale for charging Boeing as a corporation. It also meant prosecutors would have to secure a new deal for a guilty plea, and they spent six months renegotiating with Boeing. In late May, the two sides struck a non-prosecution agreement that took both the criminal charge and Boeing's guilty plea off the table. In exchange, Boeing said it would pay or invest another $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the crash victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures. The Justice Department said it offered those terms in light of “significant changes” Boeing has made to its quality control and anti-fraud programs since last summer. It said the certainty of the agreement also served the public interest more effectively than taking the long-running case to trial and risking a jury verdict that might spare the company further punishment.