Former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill, apparently broke from lawsuits during his time in office, had to stay in jail Thursday while his attorneys scrambled to find a way to cover the $50,000 bond.
Still in bankruptcy, Hill has no house to use for collateral. On Wednesday, Hill was indicted on 37 felony counts that include racketeering and theft by taking for allegedly using county funds and his 2008 re-election campaign funds for himself. When he filed for bankruptcy in late 2008, Hill had four judgments totaling more than $1.7 million he had not paid.
Bonding companies in Clayton County are unwilling to cover him because no one has stepped forward to pay the bond, according to attorney Musa Ghanayem and Sheriff Kem Kimbrough, whose office approves all bonding companies operating in Clayton.
Ghanayem said the bonding businesses were afraid of political reprisals, but on Thursday, Kimbrough disputed that, saying he talked with a number of bonding companies in Clayton that told him, “They don’t think it’s appropriate to post a bond for a former sheriff because sheriffs regulate bonding.”
As of late Thursday afternoon, no one had offered to put up the money to free Hill from the Gwinnett County Jail.
Four of the six bonding companies certified to operate in Clayton declined to comment. A woman answering the phone at Jam Bonding said she had "not been asked to do anything." A-Atlanta/Clayton said the owners were still deciding Thursday if they were willing to cover Hill's bond, which would require Hill or someone on his behalf to pay 10 percent to 15 percent of the bond ($62,500 with fees).
“The goal is to get Victor out of jail. I get murderers out of jail faster,” Ghanayem said Thursday.
Hill said the charges are an effort by his successor and the district attorney to derail his race for sheriff this year. Hill said Wednesday he still plans to run, and Georgia law says he can hold office as long as he has not been convicted.
"I'm not guilty," Hill told Channel 2 Action News, the AJC's reporting partner. "This is politically motivated. ... Even a blind man can see this.
"If you look at the politics of Clayton County, I don't think anything stuns anyone anymore," Hill said Thursday while in jail.
Hill, who served as a legislator before he was elected sheriff in 2004, got into office and won friends while there by saying what voters wanted to hear.
"Victor was an intelligent, gregarious, charming fellow with loads of talent," said retired Clayton County Fire Chief Alex Cohilas. "And it is absolutely unfortunate that he has wasted the opportunities that have been given to him and squandered a chance to put all his talents to work in a positive way.”
Kimbrough denies that the case against Hill is about politics: “I didn’t tell him [Hill] to do those things. ... I didn’t create the evidence. I just put all the pieces together.”
The “pieces” first appeared when Kimbrough took office in 2009, the sheriff said. And the information poured in.
“There were all sorts of allegations made about the conduct of Victor Hill before I took office,” Kimbrough said. “... We’ve been looking at it since I got here.”
Last spring, for example, a former Clayton County resident, now living in Douglas County, wrote Kimbrough and the District Attorney’s Office. At first, she was anonymous and posted on the Clayton Advocate website, but she put her name, Sharon Crenshaw, on documents when she filed a state ethics complaint. Crenshaw says she had "some help" but wouldn't say more.
"I’m just a messenger," Crenshaw said in an interview Wednesday. "The complaint was filed for every citizen Victor Hill stepped on along the way. ... He is an egomaniac. He abused people. I got complaints from people, from the guards and from people in the jail. I took notes.”
Some of the issues she raised also appeared in the indictment.
For example, the complaint noted that Hill's campaign report dated Jan. 5, 2009, recorded a $7,000 payment from Hill's re-election campaign to Southern Resources of Las Vegas for consulting. One of the racketeering counts alleges Hill was the only Southern Resources corporate officer. Three days later, a $7,000 check written on Southern Resources' bank account was deposited in an account for Eagle Optical LLC, another Hill company.
The 51-page indictment detailed several similar instances.
Throughout the 37 counts, investigators describe a sheriff who used the county's money and campaign funds to enrich himself and for romantic getaways, shopping sprees and vacations out of state.
The indictment said he also assigned county employees to campaign duties during work hours, and he took a jail employee on trips with him but she continued to be paid because her absence was considered paid administrative leave or sick time.
Community activist Derrick Boazman, who has known Hill since his days as a state representative, said, “The problem most people are having with this is that it looks like a witch hunt. It’s politically motivated. But I’m reminded that witch hunts sometimes turn up witches.”
Former Clayton County Police Chief Jeff Turner, who was Hill's boss when Hill was a homicide detective, said Hill resigned by leaving a letter on the seat and his badge and gun in the trunk of his patrol car and parking it in Turner's spot.
“It’s disappointing when you have an individual who is trusted with the public’s trust who violated that trust in the manner in which former Sheriff Victor Hill has allegedly violated it," Turner said. "I just hope he will have a fair, unbiased trial.”
Staff writer Bill Torpy contributed to this article.
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