Posted on 11/30/2001 1:56:14 AM PST by charphar
Former DeKalb County sheriff was arrested early Friday for the assassination of the man who beat him in the sheriff's election.
Sidney Dorsey, 61, and two other men -- former DeKalb deputy Melvin D. Walker and David Ramsey -- were charged with the murder of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, who was gunned down in front of his south DeKalb home three days before he was to have been sworn in as sheriff.
"We've been standing here and telling you we would get to the bottom of this case," DeKalb Police Chief Eddie Moody said at a 4:30 a.m. news conference.
"There are still a lot of other things that have to be done."
Police and prosecutors refused to answer questions about a motive or describe each man's alleged role in the slaying. No weapon has been found, despite for a $10,000 reward for the gun, which police said was a semiautomatic weapon.
Moody said he'd contacted Brown's widow, Phyllis, and other members of Brown's family.
"My initial reaction when I found Derwin in my driveway was, Sidney did it," Phyllis Brown said this morning. "Now, I hope it is over. I really just hope it is over."
Brown said she did not ask police to keep her up to date on the investigation. She wanted to know the outcome.
"Because I am a cop's wife...all I want to know is, who did it, when they did it and why they did."
Asked what it felt like to arrest a law enforcement officer for the slaying of a lawman, Moody said, "It makes us feel a little lost, a little sad. But our job is when people commit crimes to seek them out and bring them to justice."
Dorsey, who has consistently denied any involvement in the slaying, surrendered to police about 2 a.m., Moody said.
Ramsey, who is from the Virgin Islands, is a boyhood friend of Patrick Cuffy's, another former deputy who repeatedly called himself a target of Brown homicide investigators.
Cuffy on Monday pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and two misdemeanors in a March 18 shootout at his home that led to the death of Jeffery "Nigel" George, a purported drug dealer. He initially was charged with murder. Police have maintained the gunfight was linked to the Brown slaying but never said how.
Although prosecutors denied they made a deal with Cuffy to downgrade the murder charges in exchange for information in the Brown slaying, it was widely speculated by some defense attorneys that a deal existed.
All three men were scheduled to appear before a DeKalb County magistrate later today.
The men were being held in jail, but authorities would not disclose their exact location.
Dorsey was 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.
I remember we on FR homed in on Dorsey muy pronto like.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - A former sheriff was arrested and charged Friday with the ambush assassination of an anti-corruption crusader who defeated him in an election.
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.
Dorsey and Walker, being held in jail, appeared in court Friday afternoon. The judge granted prosecutors a delay until Dec. 18 for a probable cause hearing. The men made no statements, but Dorsey attorney Brian Steel said his client ``is clearly innocent of all charges.''
Brown's widow, Phyllis, attended the hearing.
``It's hard only because I still have just one question to ask,'' she said. ``All I want to know is why.''
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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