Clayton County, Georgia has the Atlanta airport but not much else going for it. It dropped from 38% white in 2000 to 9% white in 2020. But Clayton County has had a colorful megalomaniac as sheriff for much of this century.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill timeline
By Leon Stafford, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec 23, 2021Jan. 1, 2005: Assumed the office of Clayton County sheriff [as its first black sheriff]. Terminated 27 employees [mostly white] and had them escorted from the building with snipers posted on the roof.
Aug. 5, 2008: Hill lost the Democratic primary to Kem Kimbrough, taking 49 percent, or 12,335 votes, to the 13,107 cast for Kimbrough. Hill stops coming to the office.
Dec. 30, 2008: Hill files for bankruptcy…
Jan. 18, 2012: Hill is indicted on four counts of racketeering…
Aug. 21, 2012: Hill defeats Kimbrough in the Democratic primary runoff, taking almost 13,000 votes, 54 percent. …
August 15, 2013: After one day of deliberations, jurors clear Hill on all counts. He resumes his duties as Clayton sheriff. …
May 2015: Hill calls 911 in Gwinnett County to say he shot a woman in the abdomen. Hill said he had accidentally shot McCord while he was practicing “police tactics,” Gwinnett DA Danny Porter said. But the statements Hill made about the position of McCord’s body and the location of the weapons found at the model home where McCord worked did not match what police found, Porter said Hill was charged with reckless conduct. McCord, 43, told authorities the shooting was an accident.
August 2016: Hill pleads no contest to the reckless conduct charge. “It’s like it never happened,” said his attorney, Mike Puglise, noting that, under Georgia’s First Offender Act, Hill maintained a clean criminal record. But soon after, Hill’s Peace Officers Standard and Training Council certification was suspended for two years. Hill remained sheriff.
September 2016: Hill wins the Democratic primary with 63 percent of the vote. In November, he was re-elected to his third term. …
August 2018: An ex-Clayton County deputy who planned to run against Sheriff Victor Hill in 2020 turns himself into police after his former boss issued warrants for his arrest. Robert Hawes was charged with filing false documentation and violation of oath of office. One week earlier, Hawes’ wife, Gerrian, was arrested over several emails she sent Hill. The sheriff said the emails were harassing and that Gerrian Hawes refused to discontinue the communication even after he asked her to stop.
July 2019: Mitzi Bickers, indicted in connection with a federal bribery probe at Atlanta City Hall, receives a promotion in her job with the Clayton sheriff. She’s now the county’s chief chaplain. She had previously worked as a campaign adviser. …
November 2020: Hill is re-elected to a fourth term.
April 2021: Hill indicted on federal charges for allegedly violating the civil rights of jail detainees.
May 2021: Gov. Brian Kemp appoints a three-person panel to investigate whether Hill should be suspended from his job as he faces federal charges of violating the civil rights of jail detainees.
And eventually Hill was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in federal detention. But one suspects that isn’t the last we shall hear of Victor Hill.
