CBS Atlanta 46Former Clayton County sheriff remains behind bars

Victor Hill, the former Clayton County Sheriff, is humiliated yet defiant and still ambitious.

Hill is being held at the Gwinnett County Jail, indicted Wednesday on 37 criminal counts, including racketeering, the most serious. Hill said, however, he still intends to run in the upcoming elections to get his old job back.

"I'm not guilty," Hill said. "I'm running to be sheriff of Clayton County."

Hill's attorney, Musa Ghanayem, said early Friday that Hill has become a "political martyr" as he sits in jail.

The indictment accuses hill of stealing county money, using county vehicles and employees for his personal purposes, making a false statement, influencing witnesses and using the sheriff's office as a criminal enterprise.  Hill insisted the charges are false. "This trumped up by the current sheriff. He initiated the investigation. It was timed around election time."

The indictment comes six months before Hill's planned run against the current sheriff, Kem Kimbrough. Hill said Kimbrough filed the charges purely for political reasons.  "It was done to protect him because he knew he was going to lose the election," Hill said.

Ghanayem said as far as the election, Kimbrough is "only shooting himself in the foot."

Kimbrough has said he will use the charges in his campaign against Hill. But Kimbrough insisted the indictment is not politically motivated. "People will raise their eyebrows but again this train has been moving for a long time. There's nothing to the timing," Kimbrough said.

A judge granted Hill a $50,000 bond, but as of Thursday evening Hill was still behind bars. Ghanayem said Kimbrough pressured bonding companies out of putting up money for hill. "They've been told not to grant bond to Victor Hill and it would affect their business with the sheriff's department if they do so," Ghanayem said.

Kimbrough denied influencing bond companies

"This is just a tactic to divert attention," he said, referring to the charges Hill faces.

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