Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill will face a jury on charges he violated the civil rights of seven Clayton jail detainees in September.
Documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia last week say the trial will start Sept. 26 unless the defendant provides a reason why it should not. Hill was given 30 days to announce whether he intends to enter a plea or proceed to trial.
The Clayton Sheriff’s Office, in an early Friday morning post on social media site Nixle, said Hill would stand trial.
“We are pleased to announce that we have received a trial date of September 26, 2022 to exonerate Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill and get him back to work,” the Nixle post said.
Federal authorities in April 2021 indicted Hill on charges he violated the civil rights of four detainees by strapping them to restraint chairs as a form of punishment. Charges involving three more detainees have been added in subsequent superseding indictments filed in August and March.
One of the detainees was a 17-year-old who allegedly vandalized his family home after getting into an argument with his mother. Another was a Butts County landscaper who got into a heated argument with Hill over a Clayton deputy’s bill.
Hill, who has remained free on bail while he awaits trial, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was suspended from duty by Gov. Brian Kemp last June.
In the Nixle post, Clayton Sheriff’s Office attorney Alan Parker said a hearing has been set before the Georgia Court of Appeals for June 7 on Hill’s suspension.
“Georgia law states that an elected official’s suspension should be lifted by the first term of court if it is not so tried by that period. 4 terms of court have now passed since Sheriff Hill’s suspension,” Parker wrote.
