ATLANTA — A federal jury awarded a man $600,000 in compensatory damages from former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill in connection with being strapped into a chair for hours.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne was the only reporter in the federal court room when a jury handed down the compensatory verdict Thursday.
The jury ended deliberations without deciding on punitive damages.
Glenn Howell’s attorney Darryl Scott said Hill is personally liable after he ordered Howell strapped into a restraint chair for five hours in 2020, in addition to other things that happened to Howell in connection with this case.
Channel 2 interviewed Howell in 2023. He said Hill interceded for one of his deputies in a billing dispute over landscape work Howell had done for the deputy.
It resulted in phone calls and text messages between Hill and Howell and a misdemeanor harassing communications warrant against Howell.
He says he was innocent and ultimately after surrendering at the jail he was strapped in a restraint chair, though he was compliant and never resisted.
Hill’s attorney Michael Hoffer said Hill is weighing his appeal options though the compensatory damages were less than what Howell sought.
Hoffer said Hill maintained throughout the case and still that he did nothing wrong and that Howell was treated no differently than about 630 other inmates who had been placed in a restraint chair.
Hoffer says Hill is still seeking vindication for his federal civil rights conviction.
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