Sheriff Victor Hill’s timeline
Jan. 1, 2005 — Assumed the office of sheriff. Terminated 27 employees and had them escorted from the building with snipers posted on the roof.
Aug. 5, 2008 — Hill lost the Democratic primary to Kem Kimbrough, taking 49 percent, or 12,335 votes, to the 13,107 cast for Kimbrough. Hill stops coming to the office.
Dec. 30, 2008 — Hill files for bankruptcy, listing as debts judgements owed as a result of lawsuits brought by employees and others. He leaves office the next day.
Jan. 18, 2012 -Hill is indicted on four counts of racketeering, 29 counts of theft by taking, two counts of making a false statement and one count each of violation of oath of a public officer and influencing a witness. Prosecutors say he used his office and his campaign money for himself and not the intended purposes.
Aug. 21, 2012 — Hill defeats Kimbrough in the Democratic primary runoff, taking almost 13,000 votes, 54 percent.
Oct. 16, 2012 — Clayton judge Albert Collier dismisses five of 37 felony charges against Hill, writing that it is unclear who owns the 2008 campaign funds so Hill cannot be charged with improperly spending them.
Nov. 6, 2012 — Hill wins the general election.
Nov. 26, 2012 — Hill’s trial delayed until the Georgia Court of Appeals determines if the trial judge was correct when he dismissed five of the original 37 charges.
Jan. 1— Hill becomes sheriff again.
Jan. 3 — Gov. Nathan Deal says state law does not allow him to suspend Hill while his criminal charges are pending because the sheriff was not in office when he was indicted.
Feb. 12 — Georgia Court of Appeals hears arguments based on the decision to dismiss five of the original 37 felony counts. Ruling is pending.
How we got the story.
With the 100-day milestone in the second Victor Hill administration approaching, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began reaching out to current and former employees of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office as well as residents to get readings on how it is going. Without cooperation from Hill, the AJC depended on documents received through the Georgia Open Records Act and interviews with residents.
Victor Hill has spent the first months of his second term as Clayton County sheriff reshaping the department and making it his own — much like he did when he began his first four-year term in 2005.
This time the transfer of power has been much more low key — no mass firings, no snipers posted on the roof. But it’s clear Hill has begun rewarding allies and punishing those who may have opposed him in the past, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Wednesday marks Hill’s 100th day in office. He was elected overwhelmingly in November despite 32 pending felony charges, including racketeering, that accuse him of using the office to enrich himself during his first term.
Hill’s law enforcement officer certification will remain in suspension until his criminal case is resolved. No trial date has been set, so Hill can fill the administrative role of sheriff but cannot make arrests or serve warrants.
As he did the first four years as Clayton’s sheriffs, Hill is again expanding the office away from the more traditional role of a sheriff in an urban county to include more police functions. And again Hill requires rigid military courtesy type deference shown superior officers from uniformed deputies, civilians and inmates.
Just as before, few people are rarely indifferent about Hill; they love him, they distrust him or they fear him.
“We were impressed,” Jonesboro elementary school teacher Janice Scott said of her neighborhood’s reaction to how quickly Hill responded to their concerns about break-ins. “He is sincere about his position and he wants to make a difference.”
Clayton County resident Pat Pullar said she is impressed with how Hill has followed up on requests she’s familiar with.
”He is being responsive to residents of Clayton County. Customer service is very good,” she said.
Another Clayton resident, Jerry Griffin, is uncomfortable with the silence from the Sheriff’s Office. “We haven’t heard anything out of him and I’m just ready for the case (pending against Hill) to take place,” Griffin said.
Hill did not respond to specific questions for this article or to requests to for an interview to discuss his plans for the sheriff’s office.
But a picture of what he’s been doing emerges from emails, orders and other documents obtained by the AJC.
Hill moved swiftly and decisively upon taking office again Jan. 1.
As is usually the case when new people take over an office, Hill first reorganized the top staff.
And the man who was chief deputy for Hill’s predecessor was put in a street unit and assigned to work 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. He kept the salary of a chief deputy because of county rules.
Within weeks, other changes were announced from top to bottom, with some of those coming with pay cuts.
Captains were demoted to lieutenants. Lieutenants were made sergeants, and sergeants became deputies again.
Hill reassigned secretaries and jail chaplains.
He set up new units that drew personnel away from the traditional core responsibilities of the Sheriff’s Office — providing security for the courts, staffing the jail and serving warrants — and instead assigned those deputies to missions on the street.
And many initiatives from the first Hill administration have returned. Uniform staff must salute if they encounter the sheriff or anyone of higher rank, according to documents. Civilian employees must stop what they are doing and stand if Hill enters the room. Inmates once again must turn and face a wall if the sheriff comes into the area.
He brought back the grayish-brown “nutrition loafs” for inmates put in isolation for punishment — a dish consisting of ground meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and grains that has the consistency of meatloaf.
Even though he announced he will shut down the team of deputies who provide security at schools because he can’t spare the staff, Hill has added people to that team. At the same time, he created a unit specifically to address truancy, according to records.
Supporters insist the criminal case against Hill was brought simply to keep him from becoming sheriff again. Detractors want him removed from office until his criminal charges are resolved. (A trial has been postponed until the Georgia Supreme Court decides if the trial judge could dismiss five of the original 37 charges.)
The first significant change at Clayton Sheriff’s Office — announced Jan. 7 — was the creation of the crime suppression unit, first with 12 supervisors and eight deputies but now with 13 supervisors and 11 deputies.
At least one member of the unit put in writing his belief his assignment to the crime suppression unit was punishment, and then resigned.
“I feel I’m being singled out due to my part of the investigation which was conducted on Sheriff Hill by the District Attorney’s Office,” former Sgt. Spencer Norton wrote in a March 1 memo. “I feel that this is a hostile work environment and I’m being retaliated against, along with other members of the unit.”
As part of the unit’s work, five to 10 deputies and supervisors spend each day sitting for hours in private parking lots that have been identified as locations for drug sales and related crimes.
Five of the 20 original members on the crime suppression unit were part of the internal affairs investigation of Hill when Kem Kimbrough was sheriff in between Hill’s two terms. Another 12 had publicly supported Kimbrough or the write-in candidacy of former Chief Deputy Garland Watkins. Others had sued Hill.
“This is the only unit that has to have pre-approval to take a sick day,” Norton wrote in his memo. Overtime is mandatory, he added.
No one at the Clayton Sheriff’s Office would comment about the crime suppression unit.
Hill supporters have noticed the increased presence of Clayton deputies, which they hope will translate into a drop in crime.
“I think the first time he was in office, crime went down,” state Sen. Gail Davenport, a Hill supporter, recalled. “… I have seen more police presence. I think the sheriff’s office is out on the case.”
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