Ex-Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill facing new civil lawsuit over inmate treatment

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - Former Sheriff Victor Hill is facing a new lawsuit connected to the treatment of an inmate at the Clayton County Jail.

The lawsuit, filed by Raheem Peterkin on May 5, accuses Hill and the company CorrectHealth Clayton LLC of violating the 14th Amendment, battery, negligence, and failing to follow state law.

According to Peterkin, Hill illegally placed him in a restraint chair for hours when he was arrested and brought to the jail on Dec. 8, 2019.

Peterkin claims that he was improperly put into the chain and restrained for four hours, causing pain and scarring. During that time, he says he was denied the ability to go to the restroom, forcing him to urinate on himself.

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He is asking for nominal, compensatory, special, and punitive damages in an amount that will be decided at trial.

Victor Hill convicted of violating constitutional rights

In October 2022, a federal jury in Atlanta convicted Hill of violating the constitutional rights of Peterkin and five other inmates 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.

Victor Hill's appeal rejected 

In April, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected an appeal of Hill's 2022 conviction.

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. There is no word on whether he also completed his mandatory 100 hours of community service.

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.