What’s next:
• Jury selection expected to be completed Wednesday.
• Opening statement and possibly the testimony phase of the trial expected also Wednesday.
• The trial is expected to last no more than three weeks.
“Almost there,” Judge Albert Collier observed Tuesday at the end of the second day of jury selection for Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill’s racketeering trial, which is expected to see opening statements Wednesday.
By the end of the day Tuesday, 31 of the 36 people needed had been qualified and included in the pool from which 12 jurors and two alternates will be seated.
Opening statements are expected Wednesday afternoon and then possibly a witness or two as prosecutors begin presenting evidence they say shows Hill committed 28 felony offenses including racketeering, theft by taking, influencing a witness and violating his oath of office.
The pool of 31 qualified jurors was culled from interviews with the first 42 of the 154 perspective jurors who have reported so far. Four of the 42, members of Clayton’s Asian community, were dismissed because they couldn’t speak English. Others were disqualified because of family issues or because they said they were unable to fairly judge Hill. One was excused because he has a felony conviction and another because he is a retired police chief from the Virgin Islands.
Hill, who was elected last year despite the pending criminal case, is accused of using his office the first time he was sheriff for his personal benefit. Hill has said he is not guilty and that the case was politically motivated and started by his predecessor, Kem Kimbrough, only after Hill had announced he was running to reclaim the office he lost to Kimbrough in the 2008 election.
The charges are that Hill used county-issued cars and credit cards for personal trips during his first term as sheriff, Jan. 1, 2005-Dec. 31, 2008. The theft charges also accuse him of having an employee counted as on paid administrative leave or out of work because she was sick so she would get her salary for the days she was traveling with her boss to resorts and a mountain getaway. Other theft charges concern Hill allegedly requiring another employee to work on his biography during regular work hours.
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