Former Clayton County, Georgia, Sheriff Victor Hill, who was convicted in 2022 of violating his detainees' civil rights by leaving them strapped to a chair for hours at a time, was sued by a detainee who says she faced "deplorable" conditions in the Clayton County Jail.

In the suit, filed in federal court, Lashawnda Partee says her alleged mistreatment began in January 2021 after she was arrested for driving under the influence and a handful of related charges. She was forced to sit in the back of a patrol vehicle for more than two hours, she says, and eventually urinated on herself after being denied the opportunity to use the restroom.

Partee was subsequently taken to the Clayton County Jail, at which point, she claims, officers attempting to remove her from the vehicle bruised her upper arms and wrists. When she expressed that she was "wet," Partee says the officers provided her with other clothes but did not allow her to shower before taking her into a cell, giving her a mat and instructing her to lay on the floor.

According to Partee, a few hours later, she awoke to noise outside the cell and found herself "looking down an unknown object with an infrared beam." She asked what was happening, according to the suit, and was told to get up. She says she did so, twisting and popping her knee in the process, adding that she was denied medical treatment.

The officers who collected Partee from her cell cursed at her repeatedly, she claims, and took her to "Unit 53" for "suicide watch." There, Partee says, she was stripped naked with four other detainees before being given a paper gown that "tore with any and all movement and did not last long."

Partee calls the conditions in Unit 53 "deplorable."

There was no operating toilet in the unit, according to the suit, and detainees were forced to use the restroom "on the floor." No one cleaned the unit or otherwise attempted to make sure they were housed in sanitary conditions, and the air conditioning was also set to an "unbearable" temperature, Partee states, forcing the detainees to stuff the vents with pieces of their "deteriorated paper gowns."

"Despite never showing any signs of being suicidal, and without any sort of justification, plaintiff was forced to endure the deplorable conditions in Unit 53 for approximately thirty-six (36) hours," Partee says in her suit.

According to Partee, during that 36-hour period, she was not given food, water or prescription medications. She adds that after she was finally released from the unit and jail, she had to receive immediate treatment at the hospital for several unnamed medical conditions.

Had Hill, who was then the final decision-maker for policies, practices and procedures at the jail, better supervised his employees or ensured "rogue officers" were not allowed to continue in their jobs despite "unchecked uses of excessive force," Partee argues that things would have been different.

"His policies, practices, customs, and procedures were intentional, deliberate, and indifferent to the rights of Ms. Partee and other Clayton County pre-trial detainees," Partee argues.

Partee asks the court to award her compensation for expenses incurred, including lost wages; past, present and future pain and suffering; special damages; and punitive damages. She also asks that all costs be taxed against Hill.

Partee's suit comes after the Eleventh Circuit in March said Hill must face an excessive force suit filed by former jail detainee Glenn Howell, whose testimony about being strapped to a restraint chair led in part to Hill's criminal conviction and prison sentence for violating detainees' civil rights.

Hill previously attempted to have that conviction overturned, but in April 2024, the Eleventh Circuit rejected that bid, finding that Hill had fair warning that using "gratuitous force against a compliant, nonresistant detainee" was unconstitutional and that evidence supported the jury's conclusion that his conduct had no legitimate nonpunitive purpose.

Representatives for the parties did not respond immediately to requests for comment Wednesday.

Partee is represented by Michael E. Russ Jr. of The Russ Firm LLC.

Counsel information for Hill was not immediately available.

The case is Lashawnda Partee vs. Victor Hill, case number 1:25-cv-02071, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

--Editing by Kristen Becker.