When Clayton County voters go to the polls Tuesday, they won’t only elect a new sheriff — they’ll begin the county’s post Victor Hill-era.
After about 15 years in office, the controversial lawman, who for most of metro Atlanta has been the face of Clayton County, will be replaced by voters as the community’s top cop.
Hill was convicted in October by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of six detainees at the Clayton County jail by ordering staff to strap them into restraint chairs as punishment, which is an illegal use of the device. He was sentenced in March to 18 months in federal prison and has been ordered to report to prison in Forrest City, Arkansas, on May 15.
Levon Allen, Clayton’s interim sheriff and Hill’s handpicked successor, is running against Clarence Cox, chief investigator for the Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office, to fill the remainder of Hill’s term in the Tuesday runoff. Hill was elected to a four-year term in 2020.
Residents and experts say Hill’s absence in Clayton could offer the county a respite from the headlines that followed him from the very beginning of his tenure.
Those headlines include Hill firing 27 employees on his first day as sheriff in 2005 and posting snipers on the sheriff’s office roof to see them out; a 37-count indictment in 2012 that included racketeering and theft by taking charges; and accidentally shooting a woman while practicing “police tactics” at a Gwinnett County model home in 2015.
“We are overdue for a perception correction and a course correction,” said Drew Andrews, a recent candidate for a Clayton state representative seat. “This is an opportunity for us to decide if we are going to continue to spiral or say, ‘Hey, let’s turn the page.’”
Patricia Pullar, a Clayton resident and former Georgia Democratic Party deputy director, said a new sheriff gives Clayton an opportunity to change the narrative and focus on reasons to live or grow businesses in the county if Hill is not around to drive news.
“Outsiders don’t even give our county a chance to redeem ourselves because it seems to be one thing after another in terms of our scandals,” she said.
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That might be an uphill battle.
The Clayton District Attorney’s Office on Thursday handed down a 64-count indictment accusing close to 70 detainees at the county jail of operating a racketeering ring that used violence, extortion, kidnapping and bribery as its preferred method of control.
District Attorney Tasha Mosley said her office’s investigation began in the fall of last year when the jail was under the authority of former Clayton Interim Sheriff Roland Boerhrer, who took over after Gov. Brian Kemp suspended Hill from office because of his indictment.
The alleged racketeering continued into the new year when current interim Clayton Sheriff Allen took over, she said.
Garrett Ashley, chairman of the Republican Party of Clayton County, said he believes Hill kept a lid on the jail’s problems and that the issues reported under Hill’s watch were only the tip of the iceberg.
“The way things have devolved kind of show that,” he said.
Hill clung to power for years, despite his legal woes, because of the larger-than-life persona he created as a tough-as-nails crimefighter and his expertise at retail politics, residents and experts said.
He compared himself to Batman and commandeered the comic book character’s bat signal as his calling card. He reveled in the moniker detainees gave the Clayton jail — the “Hillton” — and the fear it sparked as one of the toughest lock ups in metro Atlanta.
But he also remembered to send Clayton grandmothers birthday cards and came to ice cream socials to talk public safety with children. When residents saw something suspicious in their communities, they called the sheriff’s office because they knew Hill would immediately dispatch a deputy to patrol their neighborhood.
Meanwhile, detainees filed dozens of lawsuits about conditions at the jail, alleging overcrowding, unsanitary cells due to faulty plumbing and physical abuse by guards. More than two dozen detainees have died at the jail since 2009, according to records obtained last year by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Earlier this month, a 22-year-old Dothan, Alabama, man escaped from the facility prior to being booked. The man maneuvered his handcuffs from behind his back, jumped out of the car at the jail as he waited to be processed and fled. It took two hours to apprehend him.
Kennesaw State University political science professor David Shock said it’s impossible to lay a community’s woes on one person or to say that Clayton County can reset its image purely on Hill’s absence. But he said stopping the constant drip of unfavorable news around Hill can make room for other stories about the county to bubble up to the top, including positive coverage.
“A big improvement would be to stop digging the hole,” he said.
Carol Yancey, a frequent critic of county leadership, said she thinks Hill’s travails have contributed to the community’s struggles to attract businesses and growth. A sheriff known for his run-ins with the law doesn’t engender stability for companies looking for a community in which to locate.
“I think until we can get that kind of mindset out of here, it will be difficult,” she said.
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