A sentencing memo filed in the U.S. Northern District of Georgia Court Tuesday recommends that former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill be sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for “abusing his authority and physically harming numerous pre-trial detainees under his care in the Clayton County Jail.”
Presentencing guidelines indicated Hill could get 70 to 87 months. However, federal prosecutors say they do not “intend to present evidence to support a finding that the offenses involved multiple criminally liable participants” [emphasis theirs]. The government does argue that Hill should face enhanced penalties for having restrained the detainees. That would put his sentence between 46 and 57 months, they wrote.
Hill was convicted in October 2022 on six of seven counts of violating pretrial detainees’ civil rights under color of law. The Clayton Crescent has chosen not to identify the 17-year-old who was one of Hill’s victims because he was a minor at the time.
Here is a copy of the memo:
Hill faces sentencing at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14 at the Richard B. Russell Federal Courthouse in Atlanta. His attorneys have said he plans to appeal.
On Tuesday, Fox 5’s Claire Simms obtained video that The Clayton Crescent and others in the courtroom saw during Hill’s trial. Here’s a link to her story:
Here is video of Hill berating Joseph Arnold, a mentally ill man who struck two women in a Forest Park grocery store line. Arnold’s was the only count the jury found Hill not guilty on:
Here is video of Glenn Howell, the landscaper who had gotten into a dispute with Deputy over landscaping work at the deputy’s home. Hill had repeatedly Facetimed and texted Howell, who turned himself in and did not exhibit any behavior that would merit being put into a restraint chair:
Here are photos of the deep cuts into the flesh of pretrial detainee Desmond Bailey’s wrists, the sight of which elicited gasps from those sitting in the courtroom:
Here are photos of the restraint chair and the manufacturer’s warning label that warns its misuse can cause injury or death:
The photos and video are coming out now because they were not available to the media during the federal trial. The U.S. Northern District of Georgia does not allow photography, videography, or audio recording during federal trials.
