The former Georgia sheriff who ordered the detainees to be tied to a chair was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

CNN
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A former suburban Atlanta sheriff was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison. civil rights allegations related to his treatment of prisoners, according to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Victor Hill, former Clayton County Sheriff found guilty in October 2022 on six counts related to the incidents, in which prosecutors said he ordered the detainees to be tied to a restraining chair and left there for several hours.

Restraint chairs are sometimes used in prisons and hospitals to control those who might injure themselves or others. Hill’s orders “caused physical pain and bodily harm” to the detainees, court documents say.

On Tuesday, US District Judge Eleanor Ross sentenced Hill to 18 months in prison, followed by 6 years on parole and 100 hours of community service.

After the verdict, defense attorney Drew Findling said the Justice Department had a “brilliant purpose” in prosecuting Hill rather than addressing deeper issues in the prison system such as use of solitary confinement.

“The fact that he was singled out for us is still something of a shame,” Findling said. He added that he plans to appeal the case.

CNN contacted the sheriff’s office for a statement.

The verdict came about two years after Hill was indicted on federal civil rights charges according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, for ordering his officers at the Clayton County Jail to strap detained pre-trial detainees to a restraint chair for an excessive period of time in four separate incidents in 2020.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Hill was first elected Sheriff of Clayton County in 2004 and lost re-election four years later. He won in 2012 to return to the post and was most recently re-elected in 2020 as an unopposed candidate. Following his indictment, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp removed him from his post.

Hill as sheriff was not without controversy, as he strove for an image of a crime-fighting tough administrator who activists and critics believed he had abused his powers. On his first day in office in 2005, he fired 27 deputies and led them out of the building because there were snipers outside. according to CNN affiliate WSB. The courts intervened and the deputies were later reinstated.

In 2013 he was acquitted According to the WSB, on more than two dozen allegations that he used the office for personal purposes.

In 2015, Hill fired a gun, injuring a friend at her workplace in Gwinnett County. according to CNN affiliate WXIA. The victim told authorities that the shooting was accidental and Hill continued his job as sheriff.

In 2020 Clayton County Sheriff’s Department was involved in an incident of excessive use of force, which the department says is the subject of an internal investigation requested by Hill. The deputy in question was soon dismissed.