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| Former Sheriff, 2 Others Charged With Ambush Killing of Sheriff-Elect |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/03/2001 |
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Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey is one of three men charged with murdering Derwin Brown days before Brown was to take office. In August, Brown, 46, had defeated Dorsey in a bitter runoff after promising to clean up a department plagued by years of corruption. After the slaying, Dorsey repeatedly denied any involvement. In one television appearance, he said the people responsible ''should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And I mean capital punishment.'' Also charged were former sheriff's Deputy Melvin Walker of Conyers and Daniel Isaiah Ramsey, whom Dorsey tried to recruit as a sheriff's deputy. Dorsey surrendered at police headquarters, and the others were arrested without incident at their homes, DeKalb Police Chief E.J. Moody said. Authorities declined to say whether they believed any of the men opened fire on Brown, who was shot 11 times outside his home on Dec. 15. ''This has been a long 11 months,'' Moody said. Authorities woke Brown's widow, Phyllis, to tell her about the arrests. ''I just want it to be over,'' she told WSB-TV. ''The sad thing is, nothing will bring my Derwin back.'' The suspects were scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge Friday afternoon. They were being held in jail, but authorities would not disclose their exact location. Dorsey had been under investigation for allegedly using on-duty deputies to work for his private security company and for letting jail inmates work in a home repair program run by his wife. Brown told 38 department employees they would be fired when he took office Jan. 1. Moody said last year he had no doubt Brown was assassinated because of his proposed reforms. At a news conference Friday, Harry Ross, a campaign speechwriter for Brown, called the shooting a ''professional assassination'' and said he had immediately suspected that law enforcement officers were involved. Ross also said he was not surprised Dorsey was arrested. During the campaign, he had warned Brown that his push to clean up corruption in the sheriff's department might put him in danger. Walker and Ramsey both were charged in March with lying to investigators looking into the slaying. Ramsey applied for a job in the DeKalb sheriff's office but was rejected for allegedly falsifying his employment history. As recently as August, prosecutors said the investigation into Brown's killing had stalled, with no fresh evidence collected in months. But a break apparently came this week, when a former sheriff's deputy won a plea deal from prosecutors for his role in a deadly shootout in DeKalb County in March. Patrick Cuffy, who had been charged with murder in the shootout, pleaded guilty to assault Wednesday. Authorities have said that the shootout outside Cuffy's home was related to a drug deal Cuffy was involved in and not directly tied to Brown's slaying. |
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