Hillyard's Criminal Record

The fact that Hillyard is a convicted felon—in fact, a repeat offender—is relevant to the matter at hand in and of itself, as it shows his prior disregard for the law. It is also of interest in that he has lied about his criminal convictions, contradicting himself several times. Even the rationalizations he has given when he has admitted that he was convicted on various charges show a tendency to take the law into his own hands and blame everybody but himself for his own shortcomings.

Criminal Record

Any arrests on charges for which he was not convicted do not appear in records available to the public, and I do not intend to travel to Florida to further investigate his record there (or pay someone to do it for me). This should not, then, be considered a complete accounting of Hillyard's criminal record. I only record those convictions/arrests for which I found documentation.

Convicted of burglary and kidnapping in Florida. Date unkown (estimate mid to late 1970s from his comments), possibly in Alachua county.
These convictions are mentioned in the records for the 1985 case, available at the Dekalb County Courthouse. Hillyard has claimed that he broke into his first wife's house to get items she wouldn't return to him, that he kidnapped his eldest children because she won custody of them, and that he later voluntarily returned the children and all charges were dropped. According to the records of his 1985 conviction in Dekalb county and 1991 trial in Gwinnett county, the charges were not dropped—he was convicted on both counts, and in fact "served some time in confinement" according to his own attorney's statements during the Gwinnett county trial. He was originally granted first offender status in Georgia, but when he apparently tried to get the charges moved from his record (as first offender charges are, it seems) that status was revoked due to the Florida convictions. The more recent trial records do not go into detail as to the context in which the crimes were committed, but considering Hillyard's record of lies I hardly think things are likely to be just as he has portrayed them.

June 27, 1985—Convicted of theft by stealing and theft by receiving stolen property in Dekalb County, Georgia (case number 85-CR-1914, copies of case records available from Clerk of Superior Court, 404-371-2762 or 404-371-2261).
Hillyard claims that his employer, Summagraphics, owed him over $5000 (at another time he claimed it was $8000—amazing what inflation can do to figures that one would think would remain fixed, being facts that are part of one's history) and refused to pay him that money when he left their employment—so he took some of their property. If, however, that is the case, the normal course of affairs would have been to file suit to get his money. At one time he said he only took a printer from them, but at another he said that he took a computer and a printer. The grand jury indictments say he committed the crimes on or about 10/22/84 and 10/30/84, that the items included a Diablo printer, an Epson printer, a computer, a monitor and various other pieces of computer/office equipment and supplies. He has claimed that the charges were dropped, then said that he was "only fined a small amount." So which was it? And if the charges were dropped, how is it that I have copies records showing that he pled guilty and was convicted? Due to the guilty plea, the charges may not have gone to trial—but he was certainly convicted.

August 29, 1991—Convicted of seven counts of credit card fraud in Gwinnett County, Georgia (case number 91B-0129-6, copies of case records available from Clerk of Superior Court, 770-822-8100.
He claims that he committed this crime because of medical bills he and his wife were facing, but his defense attorney said nothing about them in his trial. His own statements during the trial claim that his wages had been garnisheed and that's why he used the stolen credit card—but there was no mention of medical bills or problems. At another time he claimed there never was a trial on these charges. The certified copy of the trial transcript that I obtained from the Gwinnett County courthouse is amazingly believable for a document recording the events of a trial that didn't, as he claims, happen. He also claimed that he was using a company credit card, charged personal items on it, couldn't repay the company and turned himself in—but again, that is not what the trial transcripts say at all. No mention of it being a company credit card at all, in fact—the name on the credit card was Bruce Besch. According to the trial transcripts, he used the credit card, which he knew was not his to use, to open a CompuServe account on May 23, 1991. He used that account and credit card to make purchases from six online merchants: Hammacher-Schlemmer on 6/2/91, Mac Warehouse on 6/3/91, Computer Express on 6/6/91, Sierra On-Line on 6/10/91, Miltrobe Electronics on 6/10/91, and Discount Shopping on 6/12/91. The arrest warrants give some of the details about the merchandise, saying that he bought an Ad Lib sound card from Computer Express and a SoundBlaster card and Hoyles Book of Games (Vol. 2) from Sierra Online. Hillyard paid a fine and was placed in a work-release program for a year.

1996—Arrested twice on warrants issued in Dekalb County, Georgia for simple assault (charge later changed to stalking) and harassing phone calls (case numbers 96C59244 and 96C60104, respectively). Details available here.