Georgia Sheriff Ordered to Reinstate 23 Deputies

A suburban Atlanta sheriff who ordered a mass firing on his first day on the job was found in contempt of court Thursday for not complying with a judge’s order to restore 23 deputies to their posts.

Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill has until noon Thursday to restore the deputies or face a fine of $1,000 a day, Judge Ben Miller said.

The sheriff, who is black, has been at the center of a racially tinged furor since Jan. 3, when he fired the employees without warning and without saying why.

The employees were mainly white men, several of them high-ranking officers.

The next day, Miller ordered him to reinstate the employees while they pursued a lawsuit challenging their firing.

Hill took all of them back except one, but they were demoted to work as jail guards.

On Thursday, the judge said: “Reinstatement means to put back where you were, and the sheriff has not done that.”

Hill was the main witness during the two-hour hearing.

He testified that his actions since firing the deputies were allowed because the deputies were returned at the same pay and rank.

“There’s a difference in perceived status, but what they do is just as important,” Hill said.

Hill said after the hearing that he planned to appeal the decision, but that he would cooperate in the meantime.

“We’ll work with what we’ve got,” Hill said. “It’s nothing personal, and you can’t get discouraged.”

Many of the fired deputies were at the hearing. They embraced and applauded afterward.

Maj. Doug Massengale said he was eager to return to his former job, and added that working at the jail had been “humiliating and degrading.”