Sheriff Backtracks on Dismissals

A sheriff whose firing of 27 employees on his first day in office was overturned by a judge agreed Tuesday to reinstate their pay and benefits, but insisted they would not necessarily get their jobs back.

“My leadership is stern but flexible. The most important thing is to restore salary and benefits and look at each case to see who we can help,” Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill said. He said he wanted to persuade some of the officers to retire or transfer to other departments.

On Jan. 3, Hill fired 27 of his 345 employees, most of them deputies and officers. He summoned them to the county jail, took away their guns and badges, and had snipers stand guard on the jail roof as they were escorted out.

A day later, a judge ordered Hill to rehire the employees, saying it appeared they were terminated without cause and in violation of civil service rules. A court hearing is set for Thursday.

Hill defended his actions as legal, but refused to say exactly why the employees were fired. He said he was taking the employees back out of concern for their families.

The firings angered members of the department and raised suspicions that they were racially motivated.

Hill is black. The fired employees included four of the highest-ranking officers, all of them white.