PRIMA FACIE

At various times in their briefs, the Defendants suggest that some of the Plaintiffs failed to establish a "prima facie" case of discrimination. We need not revisit this question however. "When the trier of fact has before it all the evidence needed to decide the ultimate issue of whether the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff, the question of whether the plaintiff properly made out a prima facie case `is no longer relevant.'" Richardson, 71 F.3d at 806 (quoting United States Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 715, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1481, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983)). Here the Defendants failed to persuade the district court to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims for lack of a prima facie case. The Defendants responded to Plaintiffs' proof by proffering non-discriminatory reasons for some of Sheriff Barrett's actions. At that point, "the factfinder was then required to `decide whether the rejection was discriminatory within the meaning of Title VII,'" Combs, 106 F.3d at 1539 n. 11(quoting Aikens, 460 U.S. at 715, 103 S.Ct. at 1481)), and the question of whether a Plaintiff had made out a prima facie case was no longer before the district court. Thus, on appeal, we have no occasion to revisit whether Plaintiffs established their prima facie cases. We do consider, however, all of the evidence submitted by the Plaintiffs as we determine whether a reasonable jury could disbelieve Defendants' proffered non-discriminatory reasons for the challenged employment decisions.