Former Ga. sheriff sentenced to prison
Hill convicted of civil rights violations
jail chaplain said the jail was clean and well run and the county was safe when Hill was sheriff. And a longtime friend and employee called Hill a great leader, a great educator and a great defender of victims’ rights.
Prosecutor Brent Gray, reacting to witness statements that the jail was spotless during Hill’s tenure, told the judge: “The jail might have been clean, but the Constitution wasn’t being respected in that jail at all.”
Jail employees said the restraint chair was often used as punishment and that “this was all personal with Mr. Hill,” Gray said. Detainees were tortured and jail employees were too frightened to speak up, he said.
Defense attorney Drew Findling invoked well-documented problems at the federal prison in Atlanta, which include corrupt employees, staffing shortages and deficient health care, and noted that federal prosecutors have prosecuted no one over those “far more egregious” issues.
“If the government is trying to ensure the constitutional protection of citizens, they need to look in their own backyard and not just single out Victor Hill,” he told reporters after the hearing.
He also said restraint chairs are used in jails all over the country and suggested that prosecutors zeroed in on Hill because he’s “the shiny object,” a highprofile sheriff who’s drawn both intense criticism and fierce support.
Ross told Hill that it was clear to her from his own testimony and from letters and statements from his supporters that he had wanted to be a law enforcement officer from an early age and had a love for the law.
“That’s what makes this outcome so tragic,” she told him, adding that his arrogance and love of power seemed to have overcome his love of the law.
She said she “truly struggled” with the case because of the novelty of the issues raised. The federal sentencing guidelines called for a minimum sentence of three years and 10 months. But Ross ultimately decided to give Hill a sentence below that because she recognized good he did for his community.
Findling, who said Hill plans to appeal his conviction, said the judge’s downward departure on sentencing “was a statement” and said they were grateful that Ross acknowledged his positive contributions.
Hill, 58, was suspended by the governor after his indictment and retired after his conviction. He had been a magnet for controversy from the time he first took office as Clayton County sheriff in 2005. He fired 27 deputies on his first day, though a judge later reinstated them. He used Batman imagery in campaign ads and on social media and called himself “The Crime Fighter,” sometimes using a tank his office owned during raids.
He failed to win reelection in 2008 after his first term and was under indictment – accused of using his office for personal gain – when voters returned him to office in 2012. He stood trial in that corruption case, and jurors acquitted him on all 27 charges.
He pleaded no contest in 2016 to a reckless conduct charge after he shot and injured a woman in a model home in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta. Both he and the woman said the 2015 shooting was an accident that happened while they practiced police tactics.