A former Georgia sheriff convicted of ordering inmates to be held in chairs for hours without legal cause was sentenced to more than a year in prison Tuesday, 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 reported. said in a statement.
Hill, 58, was found guilty by a jury in October of six of the seven civil rights charges against him. The jury acquitted him of one charge.
Prosecutors said Hill ordered pretrial detainees to be placed in a restraint chair for hours without legal cause, or as punishment, and when they posed no physical threat.
One of those people stayed there for four hours and urinated on himself, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Another man stayed 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 had fully complied with deputies, the office said.
An attorney for Hill did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Hill’s attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Hill had no intent to violate anyone’s civil rights, but sought an orderly and secure jail and «used innovative and original measures to achieve these goals.»
“His role and actions in these crimes, while regrettable in retrospect, were monumentally less than those convicted of similar crimes involving excessive force,” and did not involve violence or assault, they wrote.
U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement that there was «absolutely no justification for Hill ordering pretrial detainees to be tied to restraint chairs for hours on end,» and that they did sustain injuries.
«Hill blatantly abused his power and a jury and a judge have held him accountable and he’s going to federal prison,» Buchanan said.
Hill was indicted in 2021. After his prison term, he will be on supervised release for six years, the US attorney’s office said.