Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill demanded that his 2008 campaign manager, Naomi Nash, take back the computer she had bought for her 16-year-old daughter’s birthday, Nash testified Friday. She had bought it with money she earned running his campaign, and then Hill kept most of the refund for the Mac laptop, Nash said.
Nash, who now lives in Florida, testified that in the end she only got to keep $800 of the $15,000 Hill initially paid her for running his campaign for about five months.
Nash is one of the two women who took trips with Hill after he lost the Democratic primary runoff in August 2008. She is the witness Hill is accused of influencing before she testified to a special grand jury investigating allegations that he had used his office for personal gain.
Testimony began Thursday in the racketeering case against Hill, who was elected last year despite pending felony charges. He is accused in 28 counts of racketeering, theft by taking, violating his oath of office and influencing a witness. Some of the theft charges allege that he used county-issued cars and credit cards for trips out of state after he lost his re-election bid in 2008.
Each day since jury selection began on Monday, the courtroom has been filed with supporters, evidence of his popularity in the county. At each break, he is greeted by well-wishers, some of whom have been vocal about their feelings about the questions being asked of prospective jurors and witnesses.
But Friday afternoon, Judge Albert Collier, said it had to stop when a woman loudly said “humph” at Nash’s answer to a question from one of Hill’s attorneys.
“I have done everything within my power to have this case tried by citizens in our community,” Collier said after the jury had left the room. But he said some comments from spectators all week have been loud enough for the jurors to hear.
“This jury is going to be deciding this case based on the evidence presented from this witness stand and not from what’s coming from out there. If that’s necessary I will clear the courtroom.”
Nash is also one of the two women who went with Hill to South Florida and on gambling trips to Biloxi, Miss., and to the South Carolina coast, events detailed in some of the theft charges.
Nash , whom Hill hired as a clerk after they met in 2007, was jailed for four days in 2011 when she refused to answer questions from the grand jury investigating Hill. While she was in jail, he sent a lawyer to help her even though she had not asked for one, Nash testified.
“He reminded me almost of an uncle I had, an old drunk uncle,” Nash said. “He had on jean shorts. Some kind of chemical in his hair. He had on dark glasses. He had on more than one ring.” He used a passage from a book Nash liked to let her know that Hill had sent him, Nash testified.
Nash said she lived at Hill’s house for much of the time when she was running his campaign.
He paid her on Aug. 14, 2008, and immediately took out $5,000 for an apartment in Florida, Nash said. The apartment was in Hill’s name.
On Sept. 2, 2008, she used some of the remaining money to buy her daughter a birthday gift She bought an Apple Mac, a warranty and some accessories.
When she told Hill what she had bought, “he had a strong opinion that I had spent too much money on the laptop and should have bought something he considered more reasonable. He requested that I get it back and get something more reasonable.”
She said Hill drove her to fetch the computer and to return it to a Best Buy store. Nash said he took the refund for the laptop and the warranty and she kept the money for the accessories.
The next day, she said, she gave him another $6,000 to spend on day trading. The rest of the $15,000, less the $800, eventually made it back to Hill, Nash said.
Earlier in the day a former Clayton County chief deputy said Hill fired him because he refused to secretly tape record the man who had defeated Hill in the 2008 election.
John Gibson said the request came just weeks before Hill would leave his first term in office and Kem Kimbrough would take over as sheriff.
After he was dismissed in December 2008, Gibson said he spoke with then-County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell about the unusually high mileage Hill had put on his county-issued cars since he lost the Democratic primary runoff to Kimbrough in August 2008, but nothing was done to pursue criminal charges.
A series of former and current Clayton County Sheriff’s Office employees described in testimony Friday an agency in turmoil with a missing leader, which offered special treatment for those who were in favor with the sheriff.
While Hill was rarely seen after he lost the summer primary runoff to Kimbrough, he spoke often with Gibson, who was in charge in the sheriff’s absence.
Witnesses testified about what they said were unusual circumstances around the time off taken by Beatrice Powell when she was traveling with the sheriff. At first Powell, a jailer, was put on paid administrative leave. Later her status was changed to sick leave; she had a medical treatment that eventually required an out-patient procedure.
The day after Hill lost the Democratic primary runoff, he left for South Florida, taking Powell and another woman with him and driving a county-owned SUV. That trip in early August 2008 was followed by more travel with Powell in county-owned cars to casinos in Mississippi and on ships leaving from the South Carolina coast.
Witnesses testified that questions were raised about Powell’s absences and records were changed, then those who carried out orders to classify Powell as on paid administrative leave tried to distance themselves from those orders.
Former Sgt. Rhonda Allah testified she had initially noted Powell’s absence on Aug. 8, 2008, after Hill had lost the election, as “no call, no show.” One of her superiors told her to change the record of Powell’s absence first to “special detail” and then to administrative leave. A week later she was told to remove the notation that the change was made because of instructions from a superior. Eventually, she said, a major told her to stop asking about Powell’s leave.
For about six weeks, during the time Powell traveled with the sheriff, she was not using her allotted sick time because she her status was paid administrative leave. When Powell was moved from paid administrative leave on Sept. 20, 2008, her status was changed to sick leave.
Prosecutors say the instruction to put Powell on paid administrative leave came from Hill.
Defense attorneys argued that sick leave is an employee’s time to be used as the employee wants.
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