Two of the six losing candidates in the Clayton County sheriff's primary are endorsing Victor Hill's effort to reclaim the office he lost four years ago; Hill fired one of them and the current sheriff terminated the other.
The announcement came in an email Wednesday. Hill, whose voice mail box was full, could not be reached for comment beyond what was in the email. He wrote that any other comment on the two endorsements would come during an Atlanta Press Club debate with incumbent Sheriff Kem Kimbrough to be taped Sunday and aired later.
Neither Clayton County Police Department Lt. Tina Daniel, who took less than 13 percent of the vote on July 31, nor former Sheriff's Office major Rica Wright, who claimed 1.27 percent of the vote could be reached for comment Wednesday. But according to Hill's campaign, both said that they felt Hill would be a better sheriff than Kimbrough. Kimbrough received 42.4 percent of the ballots to Hill's 37.5 percent in the primary election in July.
"I believe Victor Hill is the best choice to deal with the crime situation in Clayton County because the crime statistics were much lower while he was in office," Daniel said in the release.
According to Georgia Bureau of Investigation data, there were 14,934 incidents, including 19 murders, in the seven major crime categories reported in 2004, the year before Hill took office. In 2008, Hill's last year as sheriff, there were 15,959 crimes, including 31 murders, recorded. The first year Kimbrough was in office, there were 14,628 crimes, including 18 murders, and last year there were 14,691, with 26 homicides.
Daniel was among the 27 Sheriff's Office employees Hill fired on his first day in 2005 and had escorted out of the building where snipers were positioned. A federal judge later ordered Daniel and the others reinstated. Daniel resigned from the sheriff's office in 2008.
Kembrough hired Wright shortly after taking office in 2009 and then fired her eight months later for failure "to satisfactorily perform" her job. She has declined to explain.
"Hill is a better man because of his distinguished experience in law enforcement, and will be even more effective if elected." Wright said in the release.
Hill has portrayed himself as a "crime fighter" and vowed to make county safer, focusing as he did on drugs and other street crimes, even though in Clayton the Clayton Police Department and departments for the cities that respond to crime calls, not the Sheriff's Office.
Earlier this year Hill was indicted by a Clayton County grand jury on 37 counts, including racketeering, theft by taking, making false statements, influencing a witness and violating his oath of office, all allegedly while he was sheriff. The prosecutor says Hill took tens of thousands of dollars from the county and his 2008 re-election campaign.
Hill's certification to be a law enforcement officer was suspended shortly after he was indicted. If he is elected, he will have six months to reclaim that certification or he cannot continue to serve. No trial date has been set.
Hill has said he is innocent and the pending indictment is a product of Clayton County politics and Kimbrough's backers.
Kimbrough said Wednesday the criminal case against Hill was put together by a special prosecutor from the judicial circuit for Newton and Walton counties. "That process is totally out of the sheriff's hands," he said.
Kimbrough's platform is to put more deputies on the streets, serving warrants, which he said has an impact on crime because those who would have continued to breaking the law would instead be in custody.
Kimbrough declined to comment, however, on the endorsements from Daniel and Wright.
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