Convicted Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill’s chosen successor, Levon Allen, appeared to win a squeaker runoff election Tuesday to become the south metro Atlanta community’s top lawman.
In unofficial results, Allen received 50.88% of the vote while his opponent, Clarence Cox, chief investigator for the Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office, had 49.12%.
Just over 8% of Clayton’s 182,000 voters turned out for the election.
Election results will be officially certified next week. If the results stand, Allen will serve the remainder of Hill’s four-year term, which began in 2021.
A federal jury convicted Hill in October of violating the civil rights of six detainees at the Clayton County jail by ordering them strapped into restraint chairs as punishment.
Allen has been working as interim Clayton sheriff since Christmas 2022, when he was quietly sworn into office by Clayton Probate Court Judge Pam Ferguson. Prior to that, Allen had been the chief deputy of the sheriff’s office.
He will have his hands full as the county’s elected sheriff.
Last week, a Clayton County grand jury returned a 64-count racketeering indictment against jail detainees, alleging a widespread criminal operation of violence, threats, bribery and extorting families of those housed in the facility.
Clayton District Attorney Tosha Mosley said she expected more charges as investigators dig deeper into the alleged activity, which she said includes ties to gangs such as the Crips, Bloods and Gangster Disciples.
Detainees also have for years complained about poor conditions in the jail, including overflowing sewage, crowded cells and alleged abuse by staff.
Last year, the AJC reported that at least 27 detainees have died in the jail as of 2009, according to records obtained by the newspaper. Five people died in 2021 alone, the highest number of deaths at the facility in more than a decade.
In addition, the sheriff’s office is the subject of dozens of lawsuits left over from Hill’s administration. The litigation alleges everything from civil rights violations and cruel and unusual punishment to mental anguish and false arrest.
