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Zon named special prosecutor
Newton DA to try case against former Clayton County Sheriff
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Newton County District Attorney Layla Zon has been tapped as a special prosecutor in the Clayton County case against former sheriff Victor Hill, who is accused of committing multiple thefts while in office.

 According to Zon, she was appointed by Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson. Zon has filed a motion for a gag order in the case and declined to comment further.

 Hill was indicted last week on 37 counts of wrongdoing that occurring from 2005 to 2008 while he was in office, including racketeering, 29 counts of theft by taking, two counts of making false statements, violation of oath of a public officer and influencing a witness.

 According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the 51-page indictment alleged Hill used “county cars for getaways and county credit cards for shopping sprees and tapped county employees for his own campaign and charity events. He also took money for himself from his re-election campaign account.” Additionally, indictments say Hill “frequently drove a county SUV or Dodge Charger on personal trips to Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi. He used a county gas card to fuel those drives.” The indictment also alleges that “he also used county funds to pay for a getaway in the North Georgia mountains… Hill allegedly used county credit cards on shopping sprees while on those trips.”

The indictment said that Hill used roughly $108,000 in county funds for himself or his campaign and took about $80,000 from his re-election account.

Hill has announced that he plans to run for office again this year, after loosing to current Clayton County Sheriff Kem Kimbrough in 2008.