The eight people running for Clayton County Sheriff include the incumbent and the man he unseated and six people who have worked for one or both of them...four of whom were fired.
There is little that is simple or uneventful about the office of Sheriff in Clayton County.
Former Sheriff Victor Hill came into office in January 2005 and immediately fired 27 people and with snipers posted on the roof escorted them from the building. Taxpayers spent $7 million to resolve the lawsuit that followed and the court ordered him to take them all back. Most recently, Hill was indicted on 37 counts that accuse him of racketeering and theft involving his time in office. He says he is not guilty.
Incumbent Sheriff Kem Kimbrough responded to the charges against Hill by going before the cameras, waving a copy of the indictment and proclaiming it was his No. 1 example as to why his opponent should not be given a second chance.
The residents of Clayton hope this election will bring some sanity and respect to the office that some believe has contributed to the "black eye" on the county for the past several years. A special grand jury is investigating local officials, including the travel of some of the county commissioners. The county school system is still smarting from Southern Association of Colleges and School decision to revoke its accreditation because of dysfunction on the school board.
"There is just a climate of corruption in the county," said resident Dave Clark. "The whole thing is absolutely embarrassing."
Kimbrough, now sheriff, worked for the office previously. He rose from deputy to major in five years while also earning a law degree at Emory University. But in 2004 Kimbrough left in frustration to work as a lobbyist for the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, because, he said, he felt he was not getting the same respect afforded other majors.
Kimbrough worked for Hill's predecessor and decided to run against Hill four years later.
"The agency was constantly a part of what was making Clayton County seem like the laughing stock of metro Atlanta," he said.
As sheriff, Kimbrough said, he has cut spending and reduced a backlog of warrants.
"We've been able to change the face of the Sheriff's Office," Kimbrough said. "Instead of ... fighting with other police jurisdictions, fighting with the police chief, fighting with the county commissioners, we work together."
Hill was a homicide detective with the Clayton Police Department and a state legislator when he was elected sheriff in 2004.
Once in office, Hill clashed with the local police department when he tried to extend his reach. While sheriffs statewide are primarily responsible for running the jail, serving warrants and protecting their courthouses, he also went to the streets. Hill boasts on his campaign website that he created specialized units to focus on gambling, prostitution and counterfeiting; on stalking and domestic abuse; and on drugs.
It's that aggressiveness that has found him enemies who don't want him back in office, Hill has said.
"Even my critics say I scare the heck out of the bad guys," Hill said in a previous interview.
The indictment, he has said, is an example of how far his political enemies will go to keep him out of office.
Hill did not respond to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's requests for an interview for this story. He has said previously he is a "crime fighter" and boasts on his campaign web page that crime fell while he was in office but is now rising.
The other candidates are:
— Jon Antoine, who in an investigator for the Clayton County District Attorney's Office. Antoine worked at the Clayton Sheriff's Office under Hill's but he left after two years because "there were management differences."
— Tina Daniel, who was among the 27 employees Hill fired on his first day in office in and then reinstated by the court order. In 2008 and after 13 years with the sheriff's office she left to join the Clayton County Police Department, where she is now a shift commander. Daniel wants to reduce a backlog warrants and try to renovate the office's reputation.
— Lawrence Ethridge, who took a job with the Clayton County Sheriff's Office twice, in 1993 again 2005. He resigned in 2008 to become an administrator at a state juvenile justice facility.
— Godreque Newsom, who owned a security business when Kimbrough hired him in December 2009 to be his executive assistant. Two years later, however, Kimbrough fired Newsom because of an encounter with a teenager at a football game. Newsom said the student punched him and spat on him and he hit back. Newsom also refused to give his name and badge number. "I don't have any hard feelings for Kem or anybody, Newsom said. "I just want to be a vessel so this county can fix itself."
— Ricky Redding, who was with the office for 11 years when he was fired in March 2011 after strip searching a seventh grader in front of others, looking for marijuana. "I'm not running because I'm angry with someone in the office," Redding said. "I'm running because I'm the right person for the job."
— Rica Wright, who came to Georgia from Florida in 2009 to work for Kimbrough. She was a deputy at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa where she training cadets and other deputies. But eight months into her job in Clayton County Kimbrough fired for failure "to satisfactorily perform" her job. She declined to explain.
About the Author
