Ex-Cobb Sheriff's Deputy Convicted of Rape

Former  Deputy Jason Anthony Bill was convicted Friday of rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and two counts of aggravated assault.

The crime occurred the night of July 14, 2008, when the deputy was drinking at the  bar and restaurant just south of Marietta, and just outside the Smyrna  city limits. The 40-year-old faces a minimum of 25 years in prison during sentencing March 21, according to WSB-TV Channel 2 news.

A Cobb jury spent much of the week deliberating Bill’s guilt after a trial that began March 2.

In his opening statement at the trial, Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said Bill became angry at a waitress, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who spoke little English. Boring said Bill accused her of stealing his cellphone, flashed his badge and made her come with him.

“Abuse of power and praying on the weak,” Boring said, “that’s what this case is about.”

Bill drove the woman back to the  apartment complex, where both of them lived, just north of Pat Mell Road off South Cobb Drive. In his own apartment, Bill forced the woman at gunpoint to perform a sex act, then raped her and beat her with a belt, Boring said.

A neighboring girl, Deja Chambers, testified that the woman, naked and handcuffed, showed up at her grandparents’ apartment door that night just before midnight. The woman pointed at Bill as he rode by on his motorcycle, according to trial testimony.

Bill was fired immediately after his arrest in 2008.

The defense accused the woman of being a prostitute and said Bill had paid her for sex that night.

Bill’s attorney, Philip Holloway, said the woman lied about what happened so she could file lawsuits against Bill,  and the apartment complex.

Holloway also said that being certified as a crime victim by prosecutors allowed the woman to file for a special visa so she and her child could stay in the United States.

Bill, an Iraq war veteran, took the stand in his own defense and denied his guilt, but the jury didn’t believe him.