Federal prosecutors rested Wednesday in the criminal trial charging Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill with violating the civil rights of jail detainees by strapping them in restraint chairs as punishment.
Joseph Arnold and Glenn Howell, the last of seven detainees who have been recounting their experiences in the chairs to a federal jury since the trial began seven days ago, testified Wednesday in the fast-moving trial.
The government called its last witness shortly after 1:30 p.m., and U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross sent the jury home at around 3 p.m.
The Clayton Crescent website reported Wednesday that the defense said it would likely present its case Thursday, with closing arguments on both sides set for Friday.
Hill has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In her opening remarks to the jury last week, Judge Ross had said the trial could last as much as three weeks. But by Friday, she remarked that the proceedings were moving quickly, the first sign that the trial might not take as long as expected.
Federal prosecutors’ decision to rest came after a fiery day of testimony Wednesday where Hill’s defense attorneys sparred with Howell and Arnold.
Arnold was arrested in February 2020 after he had been accused of assaulting two women — one 60 years old and the other 80 years old — at a Forest Park grocery store. He remains in custody in the Clayton County Jail on the arrest and was led in court Wednesday in shackles.
He told the jury being strapped to the chair was embarrassing.
“It felt very painful and humiliating,” the 52-year-old said of his four hours confined to the chair. ”I had marks on my hands and my wrists. They turned red.”
But when defense attorney Marissa Goldberg spoke about the ages of the women he allegedly attacked, he kept insisting that they were 30 and 50 years old. And when she tried to ask him questions about what happened in the store or about his actions, he continually spoke over her, forcing Ross to repeatedly tell him to wait until Goldberg finished her question.
When he did, he consistently said: “I’m waiting for the (criminal) trial to begin.”
Defense attorney Drew Findling and Howell were even more combative.
Howell, a landscaper in Butts County, was put in the restraint chair after turning himself in to the Clayton County Jail in April 2020. Hill had sworn out a warrant for Howell’s arrest on charges of harassing communications after Howell and Hill exchanged heated conversations that month over payment the landscaper was owed by a Clayton County deputy.
During the exchanges, which were in texts, phone calls and Facetime, Findling accused Howell of offensive language, including when Howell told the sheriff: “Now you work for me.”
Findling also said Howell told federal authorities he did not know who Hill was when the calls first began and did an online search to identify the lawman. After seeing the sheriff, he told Hill: “You look like a skinny Dave Chappelle.”
“Do you know this is offensive to an elected an elected sheriff?” Findling queried, later asking, “Do you know the racist connotations of what you said to Sheriff Hill?”
Howell said his remark about Hill working for him was in relation to elected officials working for citizens. And as for searching for a picture of Hill, Howell asked what that information had to do with the charge Hill put him in a restraint chair as punishment.
“I wasn’t the one who broke the law,” Howell said.
About the Authors
