Victor Hill, former Clayton County sheriff, reportedly penned book while in prison

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - Former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill has been busy since his release from a low-security Arkansas prison in March after serving less than a year on federal civil rights charges. 

Photos posted to Hill's personal Facebook page show the retired sheriff knocking on doors trying to drum up support for Felicia Franklin, who is running for Clayton County chair. He also has been volunteering with Orrin "Checkmate" Hudson, who promotes chess as a positive motivation and discipline for youth. 

However, it’s his other venture which is catching some eyes. Hill appears to be writing a book about his time as sheriff and his subsequent incarceration.  

What is ‘Vigilante Sheriff?’ 

According to a post credited to marketing manager Joseph Brown to Hill’s personal Facebook page, the book was written by Hill while serving time in prison. The release date is expected in July with the cover to be revealed the month prior. 

The book reportedly outlines the 14 years Hill served as sheriff and what happened while he was in federal prison. The book will call for the readers to be the judge of his service and conviction. 

An exact release date and publisher have not been released.

Victor Hill appeal rejected 

Late last month, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected an appeal of Hill's October 2022 conviction for violating the civil rights of inmates. 

Hill contested his conviction on three grounds. Firstly, he argued that he lacked fair warning that his actions were unconstitutional. Secondly, he claimed that the district court mishandled juror misconduct inquiries and jury instructions. Lastly, he contended that the government failed to present sufficient evidence regarding the punitive nature of his conduct and its effects on the detainees. 

In their ruling, the Appeals Court wrote, "We reject each one. First, Hill had fair warning that his conduct was unconstitutional—that is, that he could not use gratuitous force against a compliant, nonresistant detainee. Second, sufficient evidence supported the jury’s conclusion that Hill’s conduct had no legitimate nonpunitive purpose, was willful, and caused the detainees’ injuries. Third, the district court did not coerce the jury verdict but properly exercised its discretion in investigating and responding to alleged juror misconduct." 

U.S. Circuit Judges Kevin Newsom, Robin Rosenbaum, and Stanley Marcus reaffirmed that established case law clearly prohibits the excessive use of force on compliant, nonresistant detainees. 

Victor Hill's early release 

Hill began an 18-month sentence back on May 15, 2023. It would have put the 58-year-old Hill behind bars at the Forrest City Federal Correctional Institution in Arkansas until November 2024.   

According to the Federal Bureau of Prison, Hill was transferred from the prison to community confinement, which will be overseen by the bureau's Atlanta Residential Reentry Management Office. 

Following his full release in April, the former sheriff began serving 6 years of supervised probation. No word on if he also completed his mandatory 100 hours of community service. 

What was Victor Hill convicted of? 

In October 2022, a federal jury in Atlanta convicted Hill on six of seven counts of violating the constitutional rights of detainees inside the Clayton County Jail from December 2019 to May 2020 by ordering them held in restraint chairs for hours shortly after their arrests as a form of punishment. 

His trial included about a week of testimony from more than three dozen witnesses, including the men who were restrained. Prosecutors said Hill ordered detainees strapped into restraint chairs at the county jail for hours even though they posed no threat and complied with deputies’ instructions. The use of the chairs was unnecessary, was improperly used as punishment and caused pain and bodily injury in violation of the civil rights of seven men, prosecutors argued. 

The indictment claimed Hill violated his own policy that a restraint chair can be used on a violent or uncontrollable person to prevent injury or property damage if other techniques don’t work and that the chair "will never be authorized as a form of punishment." 

In one case mentioned in the indictment, Hill was accused of calling a landscaper who had a dispute with one of the department's deputies. The indictment says Hill instructed the deputy to take out a warrant for harassing communications and then allegedly sent a fugitive squad to try to arrest the man on the misdemeanor charge. The man hired a lawyer and cooperated with jail staff before Hill ordered him placed in the restraint chair, the indictment said. 

A man arrested in May 2020 for speeding and driving with a suspended driver’s license was also strapped into the restraint chair on Hill’s orders, according to the indictment. A sheriff’s office employee then put a hood over the man’s head, and he was hit twice in the face, causing him to bleed, the indictment read. 

The jury did not find Hill guilty on the fifth count, arguing that prosecutors did not provide direct proof that Hill gave the order to restrain the suspect, as they did with other detainees. 

Hill's previous legal troubles  

Hill had been a magnet for controversy from the time he first took office as Clayton County sheriff in 2005. He fired 27 deputies on his first day, though a judge later reinstated them. He used Batman imagery in campaign ads and on social media and called himself "The Crime Fighter," sometimes using a tank his office owned during raids. 

He failed to win reelection in 2008 after his first term and was under indictment — accused of using his office for personal gain — when voters returned him to office in 2012. He stood trial in that corruption case, and jurors acquitted him on all 27 charges. 

He pleaded no contest in 2016 to a reckless conduct charge after he shot and injured a woman in a model home in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta. Both he and the woman said the 2015 shooting was an accident that happened while they practiced police tactics. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Clayton CountyNewsCrime and Public SafetyLifestyle