CNN
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The previous sheriff of a suburban Atlanta county was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal jail on civil rights fees associated to his therapy of incarcerated individuals, based on the US District Courtroom for the Northern District of Georgia.
Victor Hill, beforehand the Clayton County sheriff, was discovered responsible in October 2022 on six counts associated to incidents wherein prosecutors mentioned he ordered detainees to be strapped right into a restraint chair and left there for hours.
Restraint chairs are generally utilized in prisons and hospitals to manage those that might injure themselves or others. Hill’s orders “induced bodily ache and resulted in bodily damage” to the detainees, courtroom paperwork mentioned.
On Tuesday, US District Choose Eleanor Ross sentenced Hill to 18 months in jail adopted by 6 years of supervised launch and 100 hours of neighborhood service.
After the sentencing, protection lawyer Drew Findling mentioned the Division of Justice had chased a “shiny object” in prosecuting Hill slightly than addressing deeper points within the jail system, corresponding to using solitary confinement.
“The truth that he has been singled out, to us, nonetheless stays considerably of a shame,” Findling mentioned. He added he plans to attraction the case.
CNN has reached out to the sheriff’s workplace for a press release.
The sentence comes about two years after Hill was indicted on federal civil rights fees for steering his employees on the Clayton County Jail to strap pretrial detainees right into a restraint chair for an extreme interval in 4 separate incidents in 2020, based on a launch from the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Northern District of Georgia.
He had pleaded not responsible to the costs.
Hill was first elected as Clayton County sheriff in 2004 and misplaced a reelection bid 4 years later. He gained in 2012 to return to the place and most not too long ago was reelected in 2020 as an unopposed candidate. Within the wake of the indictment, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him from his place.
Hill as sheriff has not been with out controversy, aspiring to the picture of a tough-on-crime administrator who activists and critics have felt has abused his powers. On his first day in workplace in 2005, he fired 27 deputies and had them escorted out of their constructing as snipers had been positioned outdoors, based on CNN affiliate WSB. Courts intervened and the deputies had been later reinstated.
In 2013, he was acquitted on greater than two dozen fees alleging he had used the workplace for private achieve, based on WSB.
In 2015, Hill fired a pistol that struck and wounded a buddy at her office in Gwinnett County, based on CNN affiliate WXIA. The sufferer advised authorities the capturing was unintended and Hill continued his tenure as sheriff.
In 2020, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Division was concerned in an extreme use-of-force incident, which the division mentioned was topic to an inside investigation requested by Hill. The deputy in query was fired shortly after.