Cop sent to prison for life for Murder
Porcus Ubiquitous
'I DO NOT HAVE THE BLOOD OF DERWIN BROWN ON MY HANDS'
Staff
Friday, August 16, 2002
Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey washed his hands of the
murder of Derwin Brown on the day he was sentenced to life in prison
for killing the man elected to succeed him.
An ugly chapter in DeKalb County's history came to a close Thursday
with a melodramatic flourish from a man who had remained impassive
throughout his trial on murder and corruption charges.
"I know you are going to sentence me severely," said Dorsey, looking
up at the judge and raising an open palm for emphasis. "But I do not
have the blood of Derwin Brown on my hands."
If his words were defiant, his voice was almost soft.
In almost 40 years in law enforcement, Dorsey, 62, has been a man of
contradictions, enforcing the law on one hand, pushing it on the
other.
If he was once a good cop, he'll be forever remembered as a bad one.
DeKalb Superior Court Judge Cynthia Becker sentenced Dorsey to life
for the murder of Brown and an additional 23 years for theft,
racketeering and abusing his power when he ran the DeKalb County
sheriff's office as a personal fiefdom.
The sentencing came almost two years to the day Brown won a runoff
election on a campaign to root out corruption in the Sheriff's
Department.
Brown was gunned down in his own driveway on his wife's birthday, Dec.
15, 2000, three days before he was to have been sworn in. He was shot
12 times as he was returning home from a party.
From day one, police and the sheriff-elect's widow, Phyllis Brown,
suspected Dorsey.
In Thursday's hearing in a Decatur courtroom, Brown pointed a finger
at Dorsey from the witness stand. "You called him the lowest scumbag
on Earth," she said. "I beg to differ. That is you. That is you. As
you watch yourself in the mirror, you are the lowest scumbag on the
Earth."
The sentencing hearing turned out to be everything much of Dorsey's
trial was not: dramatic and emotionally draining.
Brown's son Marlon told the judge he wished he could rejoice in the
sentencing of Dorsey. "But I feel sadness because my father is not
here," the young man testified.
"My father was murdered in hopes of concealing wrongdoings, but in
doing so they only validated that DeKalb County is corrupt."
On the other hand, former Atlanta City Councilwoman Sherry Dorsey took
the stand to defend her husband in public for the first time.
"My husband is not guilty," she said, fighting back tears and looking
eye to eye with members of the Brown family seated in the court. "He
is not guilty of what you accuse him of. But he's been convicted today
of murder. He did not do it. He had nothing to do with it."
The former model said she stayed with her husband, who was accused
during his trial of sexual philandering, "because I knew --- I'm not
talking about what I think --- I knew he was innocent of murder."
Dorsey's lawyers filed their motion for a new trial during Thursday's
sentencing.
Dorsey is the fourth DeKalb County sheriff since 1965 to have been
indicted on criminal charges. Long before he was elected in 1996, his
career in law enforcement had been touched by scandal. He joined the
Atlanta Police Department in 1963 and rose to homicide detective in
five years.
He killed a man during a police shootout in 1965 but was cleared. In
1970, he got into an off-duty fight and struck a man with a gun that
killed him when it accidentally fired. Dorsey was charged with
manslaughter, but the prosecutor dropped the case.
After retiring from the Police Department in 1991, Dorsey ran for
DeKalb sheriff and barely lost to incumbent Pat Jarvis in 1992. In
1996, he spent $80,000 of his own money and was elected the county's
first black sheriff.
During Dorsey's three-week murder and corruption trial, which was
moved to Albany because of concerns over pretrial publicity,
prosecutors depicted him as a power-hungry cop who would stop at
nothing --- and stoop to anything --- to exploit his position and
build his base of power.
Dorsey directed deputies to deliver McDonald's "Happy Meals" to his
son at school and used county employees to work at his private
security firm.
He was acquitted of charges that he demanded sex and money in exchange
for licensing a bail bonding business, but there was little doubt in
Thursday's sentencing hearing that Dorsey's sexual adventures wrought
havoc in his marriage.
His wife alluded to this when she testified that she had persistently
spied on Dorsey's telephone conversations to try to catch him talking
to other women.
Outside the courthouse the Rev. Carl Dorsey, a cousin of the convicted
sheriff, said justice was incomplete, a reference to prosecutors
building their case on criminals who had testified against Dorsey in
exchange for immunity.
"What's not fair is that you have murderers walking the streets," he
said.
Manuel Maloof, a longtime DeKalb political and business leader, said
his county has suffered because of its history of bad sheriffs and he
hoped Dorsey's stiff sentence would be a deterrent.
"Maybe this will clean it up some," Maloof, a former county chief
executive officer, said in a telephone interview from his home. "Maybe
it will put the fear of God into anybody who thinks about being
sheriff."
DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who endured criticism for
failing to convict the men police believe carried out the ambush of
Brown, didn't seem surprised at Dorsey's stance during sentencing.
"It is obvious that Dorsey still doesn't accept responsibility for his
crimes and still blames somebody else for all his problems," said
Morgan.
The district attorney said the earliest Dorsey could be considered for
parole is 2019. "Our hope is that this life sentence means that this
defendant, the only way he gets out of prison, is in a box," he said.
Reported by staff writers Mae Gentry, Don Plummer and Ben Smith, this
article was written by Jeffry Scott
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Here is what has happened to the others who were charged or said they
were involved in a conspiracy to kill Derwin Brown:
Patrick Cuffy
This former DeKalb County jailer is set to be released from jail Sept.
12. He is serving a one-year sentence for hiding a gun used in an
unrelated shooting that left a drug dealer dead. Cuffy, who financed a
drug deal after being fired as a sheriff's deputy, cut a deal with
prosecutors to testify against Sidney Dorsey and other conspirators in
the Derwin Brown murder. By working with prosecutors, the 37-year-old
Dominica native avoided charges in both the Brown case and the drug
dealer's slaying. He testified he recruited three men to carry out
Dorsey's order to kill Brown.
Status: Working on a book deal.
Melvin Walker
This 38-year-old former DeKalb deputy wanted to be a member of the
sheriff's SWAT team. He was one of those whom Dorsey pushed ahead of
others on the list to attend classes that would give him full law
enforcement powers. Among the first four people fired when Thomas
Brown took over as sheriff, Walker was named by Cuffy as triggerman in
the Derwin Brown murder. Walker owns a security company.
Status: Acquitted of murder charge.
David Ramsey
Physical fitness fanatic and boyhood friend of Cuffy's is believed to
have returned to his native St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Ramsey, 30, did
not testify at the Dorsey trial. He wanted to be on Dorsey's
undercover drug team but was rejected for a sheriff's job. He was
arrested in St. Croix in 1993 in the attempted murder of a former
girlfriend and another man. Charges were dropped when prosecutors
couldn't locate the victims for trial. He was named by Cuffy as one of
those who went to kill Brown. He stood trial with Walker.
Status: Acquitted of murder charge.
Paul Skyers
He admits driving the getaway car in the Brown killing, but was never
indicted. Skyers received immunity for cooperating with authorities. A
former employee of Dorsey's private security company, Skyers, 30, was
among those Dorsey pushed for a sheriff's job. Skyers was rejected for
having a criminal history and lying on a job application. He owned the
Tec-9 used to kill Brown and came close to being killed by team
members when he talked about backing out of the murder plot.
Status: Testified he will enter witness protection program and get
annual stipend for life; seeking book deal.