A former Georgia sheriff convicted of ordering prisoners to sit in a chair for hours without a legal reason was sentenced Tuesday to more than a year in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Victor Hill, the former Clayton County sheriff south of Atlanta, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a statement.
Hill, 58, was convicted by a jury in October on six of the seven civil rights counts against him. The jury acquitted him on one count.
Prosecutors said that Hill ordered pre-trial detainees to be held in a restraint chair for hours without any legal reason, or as punishment, and when they did not pose a physical threat.
The US Attorney’s Office said one of them was left there for four hours and urinated on himself.
The office said another man was held there for seven hours after he said he did not want to answer the sheriff’s questions, and another was a 17-year-old boy who was off duty. .
An attorney for Hill did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Hill’s attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo that Hill had no intention of violating anyone’s civil rights, but sought an orderly and secure prison and “used innovative and out-of-the-box measures to achieve these goals.” Did.”
“His role and actions in these crimes, while regrettable in hindsight, were monumentally minimal compared to those convicted of similar crimes involving excessive force,” he wrote, “and there was no violence or assault involved.”
US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement that “there was no justification for Hill to order pre-trial detainees to remain strapped into restraint chairs for hours on end,” and that he suffered injuries.
Buchanan said, “Hill brazenly abused his power and has been held accountable by a jury and a judge and will go to federal prison.”
Hill was indicted in 2021. The US Attorney’s office said that after the prison term, he will be under supervision for six years.
