FBI investigating Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill again, sources say

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill once again.

Federal agents searched Hill’s office Wednesday morning.

It is unknown what investigators were looking for, but sources told Channel 2′s Tom Jones the FBI had a search warrant and seized items from Hill’s office.

A legal representative said he wasn’t aware of any search warrant.

“At this point, I can make a statement because I don’t have all the facts,” Alan Parker said.

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Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne has been tracking the situation leading to today’s action for several weeks.

A law enforcement source says the FBI has been investigating Hill for allegations he used his powers as sheriff to exact revenge on a man he believed had insulted him when Hill spoke to him by phone about a civil dispute between the man and one of his deputies.

The attorney for the alleged victim says his client did some work for one of Hill’s deputies and threatened to bring legal action against the deputy for non-payment. The lawyer says his client received a call from someone claiming to be Hill suggesting he back off his pursuit of the deputy’s debt.

The client did not initially believe the caller was truly Victor Hill, though a later FaceTime call confirmed it was. Sometime in one or both of the calls his client told Hill what he thought of his intervention in no uncertain terms.

Butts County Sheriff Gary Long says over a two-day period, heavily armed Clayton County Sheriff’s fugitive squad members visited several Butts County locations searching for the man who had allegedly insulted Hill.

Long says once he learned what was going on, he objected to the presence of the Clayton County deputies in his county, particularly since the warrant they were attempting to execute was simply for a misdemeanor harassing phone call charge.

Long says the heavily armed response was overkill at best. Long confirms he has been interviewed by the FBI as a witness but said he was limited about what he can say publicly because of the ongoing investigation.

The attorney says his client has confirmed he reached out to Winne while he was hiding in fear from Hill’s team. Winne began working the phones and tracking the story. That was weeks ago.

After the alleged victim spoke to Winne, he spoke to his attorney, who arranged for his surrender at the Clayton County Jail believing that was the best way to ensure his client’s safety.

However, he says, once his client surrendered, he was strapped into a restraint chair for hours and taunted by Hill, then he was stripped naked and placed in an exceptionally cold suicide watch cell though he never threatened suicide nor was in any way a suicide risk.

The attorney says when his client was eventually released and he learned what happened, the attorney reached out to the FBI who opened an investigation leading to today’s search warrant.

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