ATLANTA — Federal court documents show that the attorneys representing former Clayton County sheriff, Victor Hill, has filed an appeal.
His legal team filed the appeal three days after his sentencing.
Hill was sentenced to 18 months in prison for abuse charges Tuesday.
The sentence also includes six years of supervised probation as part of his sentence. He was also required to pay $600.
A jury found him guilty on six of the seven federal abuse charges last year. They said he ordered inmates to be held in restraint chairs for hours as a form of discipline with little provocation.
Hill told the jury he did it to maintain order in the jail.
More on the case
Victor Hill is widely known in metro Atlanta. He called himself “The Crime Fighter” and has used Batman imagery to promote himself on social media and in campaign ads. This was his second trial on criminal charges. Clayton County voters reelected Hill in 2012 while he was under indictment the first time, accused of using his office for personal gain. He beat those charges.
In April 2021, a 12-page federal indictment was unsealed, charging Hill with four felonies. Prosecutors argued Hill violated the civil rights of four Clayton County jail inmates in 2020. Hill was accused in the indictment of directing the inmates to be strapped into restraint chairs for several hours.
A new indictment was brought against Hill in March, adding two new charges to his criminal case. The first indictment listed four victims, and a first superseding indictment brought that total to five.
In one instance, a man arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at two men outside his home in Jonesboro was booked into the Clayton County Jail. When he denied the allegations against him, Hill allegedly told staffers to "put his a** in the chair," where he was left strapped for hours under the orders of Hill.
Another man was arrested at his home in Hampton for allegedly possessing drugs and illegal firearms and was "compliant and never posed a threat to anyone" upon being taken into custody, according to the indictments. When he told Hill he did not want to speak to him, the sheriff allegedly ordered him into a restraint chair and, similarly, he was left strapped there for hours.
Another alleged victim responded, "it's a democracy," when the sheriff asked him why he was in Clayton County, according to the document. He also asked twice if he was entitled to a fair and speedy trial, to which Hill allegedly replied: "You entitled to sit in this chair, and you’re entitled to get the hell out of my county and don’t come back. That’s what you’re entitled to. You sound like a d*** jacka**."
In another instance, a 17-year-old was allegedly left in the restraint chair. In one alleged incident, Hill told two detainees already strapped into restraint chairs that he would "sit your a** in that chair for sixteen hours straight" if they repeated criminal behavior.