Former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill appeared to take a private jet to prison on Monday.
Hill posted a video on social media of himself boarding a private plane early in the morning, just hours before he was scheduled to turn himself in to a federal prison in Arkansas.
A spokesperson for the federal bureau of prisons confirmed Monday afternoon that Hill turned himself in to FCI Forrest City in Forrest City, Arkansas. The prison is described as “a low-security facility with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.”
The video shows Hill walking on a tarmac toward the jet as he talks on a cellphone.
In the 30-second clip, which was posted about 10 a.m., he is wearing khaki cargo shorts, an unbuttoned shirt with what appears to be a lion or tiger printed on the back, and sandals. He carries a brief-case sized piece of luggage and then turns back toward the camera and waves after boarding the plane.
A caption accompanying the video reads “Strength and Honor!”
Hill is serving an 18-month sentence for violating the civil rights of six detainees at the Clayton County jail. A federal jury in October convicted the longtime sheriff of ordering staff to strap the detainees to restraint chairs as punishment.
The chairs can only lawfully be used to prevent detainees from harming themselves or others.
It was unclear who owns the jet or if Hill was taking it to Arkansas to begin his sentence, though the timing of his departure suggests that is the case.
According to FlightAware.com, a private jet left Cherokee County Regional Airport in Canton — which matched the airstrip in Hill’s video — around at 8:46 a.m. It landed at Delta Regional Airport in Colt, Arkansas, at 8:42 central standard time.
Forrest City is about nine miles south of Colt.
U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross handed down Hill’s sentence in March, saying that one of Hill’s biggest foes is himself and his ego.
“My sincerest prayer for you is that you would sit down for a moment and think about everything,” Ross said during the sentencing.
Hill has spent much of the last months of his freedom since his sentencing on two things: trying to get his preferred candidate to replace him elected sheriff and remaining free on bond as he appeals his conviction.
He was successful in getting Levon Allen elected sheriff in a runoff in April.
Allen, who Hill calls his godson, squeaked out a victory by receiving 51% of the vote while his opponent, Clarence Cox, chief investigator for the Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office, won 49%. Hill stumped heavily for Allen, appearing with him at campaign stops and turning over his social media to the candidate to increase his visibility to 35,000 followers.
But Hill fell short on remaining free pending his appeal. Ross last week denied Hill’s bond request, saying she did not think arguments made by his legal team would “present substantial questions of law that might change the outcome of his conviction upon appeal,” according to documents filed with the court.
Hill’s incarceration brings to a close the current chapter of former sheriff’s long and controversial career. Though he was popular among many Clayton residents, who elected him four times, he also had his share of troubles. They include a 37-count indictment in 2012 (a Clayton County jury acquitted him on all counts), was charged with reckless conduct in the accidental shooting of a woman while practicing “police tactics” at a Gwinnett County mobile home, and in 2018 arrested the wife of a potential opponent for the sheriff’s position.
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