narrator: A newly elected sheriff
is brutally assassinated
in cold blood.
[gunfire]
- When she opened the front door,
this body was there.
He had been shot multiple times.
[siren wailing]
- What?
What do you mean he didn't make it?
[voice breaking] Unbelievable.
narrator: Was this murder an act of revenge?
- Every shell casing had been fired
by a 9 millimeter modified to shoot
multiple rounds of ammunition.
It was an intended hit.
narrator: Or is this a conspiracy
that runs much deeper?
- The audacity of having a list of people
that you are now targeting to be killed
was incredible to me.
- We had suspicions, but he did not wanna talk.
We were at a dead end.
- People were concerned that this might not be a case
that would ever be solved.
narrator: When the truth is finally revealed,
it sends shockwaves throughout Atlanta law enforcement.
- This was something that was out of a movie.
This can't be for real, right?
[dramatic music]
* *
[sirens wailing]
[dramatic upbeat music]
narrator: At the turn of the 21st century,
Atlanta's growth from the previous decades
has begun spilling into its surrounding neighborhoods.
- Atlanta had really hit its stride by 2000.
The Olympics were in '96.
Many people had fallen in love with our city.
DeKalb County is the neighboring county.
And so a lot of people who didn't want
to move to the big city of Atlanta,
they loved moving to DeKalb County
because it was so close and incredibly progressive.
narrator: And much like the area itself,
the greater Atlanta law enforcement community
has a long history of progressive milestones.
- Atlanta was definitely more accepting of minorities
as leaders in law enforcement.
You began to see more African American males,
for example, as sheriffs in some of the smaller counties.
narrator: One of them was 46-year-old Derwin Brown,
who in 2000 became the second African American sheriff
elected in DeKalb County.
- Derwin Brown had a long, distinguished career
in law enforcement, 23 years
with the DeKalb Police Department.
Very active in his community.
Everyone knew that Mr. Brown was all about
being upright, honest.
- My father, he wasn't the police officer
that just wanted to come in
because a crime had taken place.
He wanted to prevent a crime from taking place.
He was truly a community police officer.
- In 2000, Derwin was running against
the incumbent sheriff, Sidney Dorsey.
He eventually won in a runoff.
- Citizens of DeKalb County said, "This is who we want."
narrator: But before he can take the oath of office,
Derwin Brown's term as sheriff is tragically cut short.
On a rainy December night in 2000,
Phyllis Brown is inside her Decatur home,
waiting for her husband, Derwin, to arrive.
- She heard shots fired.
[gunfire]
She thought it was coming from next door.
And she picked up the phone to call 911.
That's when she realized that her husband was coming home.
[dramatic music]
And she ran out the door,
and when she opened the front door,
his body was there.
He'd been shot multiple times.
[sirens wailing]
narrator: First responders arrive on the scene
and rush a severely injured Derwin to the hospital
as officials from all over the Atlanta area
are alerted of the shooting.
- This lady had called to tell me
that Derwin had gotten shot.
My thought was, let it be him be shot in the arm or leg.
At least he can survive.
- When we got to the hospital, it was just so many people.
I kept saying, "Can I go back and see him?
Can I go back and see him?"
Nobody would really give me an answer.
And his best friend comes out.
He was like, "He didn't make it."
And I'm like, "What?"
You know, what do you mean he didn't make it?
And he was like, "He didn't make it."
And it was just...
[voice breaking] Unbelievable.
* *
- There were 11 shots that had been fired into the body.
Three of those were fatal.
* *
- It just sounded like a dream,
something that you just couldn't imagine.
- He was truly my Superman.
I just-- he was invincible to me.
So this was truly unbelievable to me.
narrator: While Derwin's loved ones
process the news of his death,
technicians at the crime scene
recover any evidence they can find.
- We went to the crime scene.
It was pouring down Georgia rain.
It was a hard rain.
So finding evidence, it would be very difficult.
- Rain, inclement weather, any of that
will affect a crime scene.
If you have a body or blood,
rain will wash a lot of that away.
- I remember distinctly seeing Derwin's leather coat
and a dozen roses on the ground.
There was no gun.
I noticed that there were multiple red flags,
and I asked one of the crime scene forensic investigators
what the red flag meant,
and she said, "That's a shell casing."
And I was shocked at the number of shell casings
they had already found.
- In a situation where you only have a limited amount
of evidence on the scene,
we do what we call a neighborhood canvass.
You ask people, you know, did you see anything?
Did you hear anything?
- We heard the shots, and we thought it was firecrackers,
maybe some of the children playing in the neighborhood
with the firecrackers.
We had no idea, actually, what had taken place.
- From my understanding, it was not that much.
- We quickly eliminated crime of passion.
Did not fit at all.
Then you look at, was it a potential robbery?
Well, robbers really don't show up at 11:00 at night
at someone's home and shoot 16 rounds of ammunition.
What they usually want is just to steal the goods and leave.
Nothing was taken.
- This wasn't someone just happened
to want to rob someone.
With the number of shell casings that were found--
a lot of times when someone's trying to cover their tracks,
they take those, but they left those behind.
- It was an intended hit.
And then the question is why and who would have
the motivation to do that?
narrator: The murder of an elected sheriff
isn't being taken lightly by the tight-knit Atlanta
law enforcement community.
And their response is rapid.
- When there is a homicide of note,
the law enforcement community comes together
very quickly to solve it.
When there is a homicide
of another law enforcement officer,
it is stepped up exponentially.
- Sheriff-elect Brown was gunned down in his driveway.
Sheriff-elect Brown was assassinated.
- Almost instantly, we formed a group
with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms,
DeKalb County Police Department,
and my office.
narrator: The task force is the largest formed
in the area since the Atlanta child murders 20 years prior.
And they get right to work, starting with what events
led up to Derwin's death.
- December 15th was not only the day
that my father was assassinated.
It was also my mother's birthday.
The morning of December 15,
my father graduated from the Sheriff's Academy,
so he was actually complete with what he needed to do
to take office.
Dinner was a celebration, so there were a lot of people
that were at the graduation and some that weren't.
But they all came together to celebrate, you know,
that it was like we were there.
We had finally made it to the ending point
of where we wanted to be.
- Later, Phyllis went home.
Derwin went in another direction
to quickly get a dozen roses to get for his wife
for her birthday and then went home.
Phyllis never saw those roses.
- They had laid for him waiting for him to come home
so they can assassinate him.
There's nothing else you can call that.
- This is someone who really wanted this individual
to no longer exist.
And we started to wonder who would want Mr. Brown dead?
narrator: Officials have to consider that the target
may not have just been Derwin but rather
the Atlanta law enforcement community at large.
- We didn't know what to make of it.
Was there open season now on sheriffs?
- The day after the murder, Chief Moody told me that
they had put a special detail for Phyllis and the family.
- Even the outgoing sheriff, Sidney Dorsey, got protection.
It was a very scary time when you think about the fact
that law enforcement needed law enforcement
in order to keep them safe.
- You wonder about the brazenness of someone
who would dare to murder someone
that high in law enforcement.
The line had been crossed.
And if it had been crossed once,
might it be crossed again?
narrator: The task force must also ask themselves,
could this be a case of revenge?
- You figured this must have been someone that
he locked up during his career.
- Many people thought that perhaps it was somebody
coming to settle a score.
- Derwin had sent out a letter about a week earlier
to 33 employees of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department
telling them that the day he took office,
they would be terminated.
- He was handing out pink slips,
and these were people who had a bone to pick.
- I think it was a very dangerous move to make.
[dramatic music]
narrator: Atlanta's law enforcement community
is on high alert as they race to find the killer
who brutally assassinated
DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown.
- The news that Derwin Brown had been killed--
it is something that really takes your breath away.
There was a, you know, bright star
on the horizon in DeKalb County,
and now all of a sudden, he's gone.
- If we had known that Derwin had enemies to the point
where they wanted to kill him,
he wouldn't have been caught by himself.
narrator: Detectives dig deeper
into Derwin's prolific career
of putting criminals behind bars.
Is it possible one of them sought revenge?
- Many people thought that perhaps it was someone
that he had interfaced with.
And honestly, it really could have been
any one of those people that he had locked up
over the course of his 23-year career.
narrator: And the alleged murder weapon appears
to support this theory.
- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation
told us that every shell casing examined
had been fired by the same weapon, a 9-millimeter,
modified so that they could shoot
multiple rounds of ammunition beyond the typical six rounds.
When a gun like this is modified,
typically it's modified by gang members or drug dealers.
- Derwin Brown, he came in contact with murderers,
rapists, drug dealers, gang members
probably on a daily basis.
Was it someone that, you know, he had put in jail
or another family member
or whatever could have done this?
narrator: But looking into Derwin's past cases,
no one stands out as a criminal looking for revenge.
- We looked back at people that Derwin had investigated,
but that was a dead end.
narrator: The task force is now
one week into the investigation.
And as they continue to scour for leads,
the city of Atlanta mourns Derwin Brown
as he is laid to rest.
- The church was packed with dignitaries.
It was on CNN.
It was on every station.
- My father was a soldier.
He was not afraid to let the truth be known.
And the truth is known. Believe me, it is.
- It was amazing to see the support, see that love,
and to see how many officers from all across--
it wasn't just DeKalb County.
You had officers from everywhere that came.
It was just so powerful to me.
- We wanted our show of solidarity to be there
so that we could say to the citizens of DeKalb County
that this state's sheriffs are here.
narrator: Derwin's burial clothing
is a devastating reminder
of the hero DeKalb County has lost.
- The night my father was assassinated,
my mom left dinner a little bit earlier.
You know, she just kind of played off like she was tired
and she wanted to go home.
But reality, she wanted to surprise my dad.
His uniform that he had made had come in,
and so she wanted to get home before him
so that when he walked through the door,
it would be the first thing that he saw.
- The uniform, specially made for Sheriff Brown,
was put to use.
Unfortunately, it had to be put into the ground
instead of put into service.
narrator: It is a fitting tribute
for such a respected public servant.
But with Derwin's killer still on the loose,
a cloud hangs over the service.
- I wished that Derwin could have been there
to see the people who cared about him.
At the same time, I was also there as a professional,
knowing that this man's death, ultimately,
I could be responsible for the prosecution
of whoever did this.
- I had the opportunity to be one of the ones
to speak at his funeral.
And I said the killer is right here attending the funeral.
Most of the time, they are.
narrator: Is it possible that Derwin's killer
lies within his closest inner circle?
Detectives dive deeper into Derwin's life and career,
zeroing in on his recent electoral victory
against incumbent sheriff Sidney Dorsey.
- Sidney Dorsey, a lot of people
knew as a homicide detective.
And a lot of people knew him in the city of Atlanta
and DeKalb County knew him.
He was a part of that investigative team
for the child murders in the city of Atlanta.
narrator: 20 years earlier, dozens of children
were murdered in the Atlanta area.
Dorsey played a key role in bringing Wayne Williams,
their alleged killer, to justice.
- The detectives and officers involved in finally arresting
Wayne Williams and getting him convicted
were held in high regard, as was Sidney Dorsey.
After serving and retiring from the Atlanta Police Department,
he ran for DeKalb County sheriff.
He overwhelmingly won,
and he was the first Black sheriff of DeKalb County.
- I saw Sidney change in a number of ways.
I began to hear rumors about the way
that he was dealing with things.
When we see that the sheriff is not living up to the honor,
there might be somebody else that's willing to come in
and say, "I'll take on the challenge."
narrator: Disgusted with the rumors of corruption
during Sidney Dorsey's tenure, Derwin Brown decided
to run against him in 2000.
- When Derwin Brown came out saying,
"I'm gonna clean up corruption, I'm gonna clean up the jail,"
he was talking about all of the corruption
that was propagated by Sidney Dorsey.
- The race was very contentious
between Mr. Brown and Mr. Dorsey.
Mr. Brown just eked into a runoff.
In the runoff, Mr. Brown won by thousands of votes.
[cheers and applause]
- Sidney Dorsey was infuriated that he had lost.
I mean, think about who he had been
to this community for years,
and to be narrowly defeated,
it was too much for him to take.
- Would someone who had been defeated
in a political election have such hate
and revenge and spite that they would
want their opponent murdered?
I was having a hard time grasping that,
but we had to look at it.
[gunfire]
[dramatic music]
narrator: DeKalb County investigators
are digging into the professional life
of the assassinated sheriff-elect, Derwin Brown.
They're exploring the possibility
that incumbent sheriff Sidney Dorsey,
who Derwin recently defeated,
may have had reason to want Derwin dead.
- Dorsey came to mind, just remembering and knowing
how that election went.
But it was still unbelievable.
* *
narrator: Detectives questioned Dorsey
regarding his whereabouts the night of the murder.
- We'd interviewed Sheriff Dorsey,
and it was clear he was at home with his wife
when the murder occurred...
- I see him as being an extended member of my family.
- And that he was nowhere near Derwin Brown's house.
narrator: With a solid alibi and no physical evidence
connecting him to the murder, police clear Sheriff Dorsey.
But investigators learn that Dorsey wasn't the only one
who was losing his job because of Derwin's win.
- Derwin won because people
were disgusted at what was happening
in the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department.
They were embarrassed about it.
It reflected bad on the county.
- It is not at all uncommon for people to say
"I'm going to clean up" in any election.
And nine times out of ten, they're gonna want
to bring in their own team.
narrator: The team discovers that Derwin had begun
the process of cleaning house,
even before his first day on the job.
- Derwin had sent out a letter about a week earlier
to 33 employees of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department
telling them that the day he took office,
they would be terminated.
- Calling it a professional hit,
the DeKalb County District Attorney
said there's a list of people who wanted Brown dead.
- It was a little dicey on his part
to send that out, to signal that so early,
before he'd actually taken office.
That's really flexing before you even get in the door.
narrator: But those in his inner circle
know Derwin sent the letters with good intentions.
- He said, "Do you think that I should wait two weeks
and then just walk up and tell them, 'You're fired'?
Or do you think I should give them a two weeks' notice?"
I says, "Derwin, would you want somebody
to walk up to you on the day they're gonna fire you"?
Derwin said, "Geraldine, I never thought
about it like that."
So Derwin agreed to give them a two weeks' notice.
- Derwin Brown had his reasons for sending those letters,
but I think it was a very dangerous move to make.
- There's too much time and too much opportunity for sabotage
between the time that you send that letter out
and the time you actually take office.
A lot of devilment could have been done.
But that was Derwin's choice.
- We thought that was the first place that we could look
to see who these people were, if they had
any real motivation other than revenge and hate.
And where were they at the time of the murder?
- He was handing out pink slips,
and these were people who had a bone to pick.
narrator: Investigators begin to make their way
down Derwin's termination list.
- This crime was too well-planned
to just be a spiteful murder.
It was not something that was done out of,
you know, I've had a few drinks,
I'm gonna kill the son of a bitch
because he's going to fire me.
It was not that kind of murder.
And every person was interviewed
who was on that list to be fired.
We could not find anyone that we could pinpoint
that was at the crime scene.
- And as they take themselves off one by one by one,
you begin to narrow in who exactly you're looking for,
who exactly you're looking at.
narrator: Name after name is crossed off the list
until they get to one very particular person.
* *
- Patrick Cuffy was a deputy that we were looking at
very stringently as being involved
in the corruption of the jail
and that he possibly would have a motivation
for killing Derwin Brown.
- In that world of law enforcement,
he was pretty high-ranking
and made a whole lot of money doing it.
narrator: Derwin was set to fire Cuffy
after he discovered that Cuffy was filing
fraudulent overtime hours with the county
and collecting extra pay.
- One of the programmers in the billing department
called me and said Mr. Cuffy had all these overtime hours,
and it's not humanly possible for this person
to be working this many hours.
- We are here to serve citizens of our counties,
and we cannot do that with any shadows,
any sense that we are mismanaging or that
we're personally benefiting from being
in the Office of Sheriff.
- Patrick Cuffy had done well for himself,
and so not having a job with the new administration,
he had reason to be concerned and had something to lose.
narrator: And there is one glaring detail
about Patrick Cuffy investigators cannot ignore.
- Mr. Cuffy worked for the outgoing sheriff,
Sidney Dorsey.
* *
- Everybody's on guard.
Everybody's antenna are up.
- Walked in the door.
He said, "J. Tom, don't ask me any questions,
"but you need to start carrying a firearm,
"you need to wear a bulletproof vest,
and you need security as much as possible."
[dramatic music]
narrator: It's been over a month
since DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown
was viciously gunned down in front of his home,
and detectives are still searching for answers.
- Everybody was still wondering what happened.
How was this able to happen?
I mean, this was something that was out of a movie.
This can't be for real, right?
narrator: After reviewing the list of people
that Derwin planned to fire, the Atlanta task force
has set their sights on sheriff's deputy Patrick Cuffy
and his connection to outgoing sheriff Sidney Dorsey.
- He had very, very close ties to the sheriff,
and I was wanting to know where Mr. Cuffy was
at the time of the shooting.
narrator: Investigators bring Patrick Cuffy
in for questioning.
- Patrick Cuffy, at the time when I interviewed him,
he was very arrogant.
He didn't wanna answer my questions.
It was very confrontational with him.
- We interviewed Cuffy about his whereabouts
at the time of the murder.
Cuffy said that he was with three other gentlemen
and that they were talking about
what they were going to do once Mr. Brown took office
because they were losing their jobs.
One was Melvin Walker, who was a deputy
in the sheriff's department as well,
and then David Ramsey and Paul Skyers,
who worked in the sheriff's security firm.
narrator: They also questioned Cuffy
about the men's connection to Sheriff Sidney Dorsey.
- He--my terms--bowed up.
He said the sheriff was a father figure to him.
The sheriff had taken him under his wings,
that he had done nothing wrong,
and the sheriff had done nothing wrong.
We had suspicions of Cuffy's unusual behavior,
but he did not wanna talk.
narrator: With Cuffy remaining tight-lipped,
investigators bring the other three men in for questioning.
- We had corroborating alibis.
These four men were together at the time the murder occurred.
What we think somebody may have done is totally irrelevant.
The law requires probable cause,
and we had no evidence.
- As a result, they had to be let go.
As much as law enforcement thought that they had
the people involved, they didn't
have enough to keep them.
People were concerned that this might not be a case
that would ever be solved.
narrator: Despite the setback, the task force is convinced
Patrick Cuffy knows more than he is letting on.
But before they can dig deeper into Cuffy,
DA J. Tom Morgan receives a disturbing warning.
- After we started focusing on Cuffy,
the private defense attorney, who had been
one of my top prosecutors,
called me and said he needed to see me.
And he said it's private.
* *
He walked in the door, and he said, "J. Tom,
"don't ask me any questions, but you need
"to start carrying a firearm.
"You need to wear a bulletproof vest,
and you need security as much as possible."
I knew, as an attorney, that the only way
you can break confidentiality is if you believe
a client is going to harm another person
or kill another person.
narrator: Because of attorney-client privilege,
the lawyer can't divulge details about his source.
But the chilling advice has the entire task force on edge.
- Everybody's on guard.
Everybody's, you know, antenna are up.
Is this something that we all need to be careful about now?
narrator: As the tension builds,
the suspect list runs dry.
Now ten weeks into the investigation,
the case is growing cold.
- We were at a dead end in the investigation.
- It felt like they didn't have any real leads,
and we felt like it was no movement going on.
It was insane to me.
narrator: But in March of 2001,
three months after Derwin's murder,
a seemingly unrelated shooting brings investigators
a surprising break in the case from an all-too-familiar name.
- So ironically, Patrick Cuffy is involved
in a whole nother case, a drug case,
that ultimately ended in a murder.
- There was a shootout.
It was a drug deal gone bad.
There was a drug dealer who apparently
had been killed in the shootout.
This crime took place in Cuffy's yard.
Cuffy was right in the middle of it,
and now he was charged with felony murder,
which is life in prison.
- When law enforcement came for him for that case,
they used that as an opportunity
to see if he would cooperate in the Derwin Brown murder.
- There was a murder that took place,
and so now Cuffy wanted to start talking
'cause he needed to get off.
And that's really when the pieces
on our end came together.
narrator: Facing serious jail time,
Patrick Cuffy makes a deal with the DA for immunity.
He also asks for a lighter charge in the drug case.
* *
- We arranged to meet Patrick Cuffy
at a location in another county.
I needed a private place where no one
would know who was there,
and there was a trailer out in the woods.
I read him his Miranda warnings,
and we questioned him for about 2 1/2 hours.
- Once Patrick Cuffy started talking to law enforcement,
he dropped the bombshell...
that it was Sidney Dorsey who had planned
this entire assassination plot.
[dramatic music]
narrator: The task force in Atlanta
has just had a major breakthrough
in the Derwin Brown murder investigation
when prime suspect Patrick Cuffy
fingers incumbent sheriff Sidney Dorsey
as the mastermind behind the horrific assassination.
- Patrick Cuffy had incriminating evidence
against Sidney Dorsey.
- Cuffy said that he'd gotten a phone call from Dorsey
and that Dorsey asked him to come over to his house.
Said when he got there, Dorsey looked very disheveled.
He was still in his bathrobe.
- In a very odd, almost made-for-TV moment,
Sidney Dorsey writes down on a piece of paper
to kill Derwin Brown, shows Cuffy that,
and then eats the paper.
And it was no movie.
That happened.
- Dorsey asked him who he thought
would help carry out something like this,
and Cuffy mentioned three names:
Melvin Walker, Paul Skyers, and David Ramsey.
Dorsey knew all three of these,
either because of his security firm or sheriff's department.
narrator: They are the same three men
that confirmed Cuffy's alibi
for the night of Derwin Brown's murder.
- Sidney Dorsey was a man that had a lot of power.
He told them what he wanted done,
and they followed through.
- They discussed various ways
in which to carry out this assassination.
They all agree that Skyers will be the getaway driver,
Melvin Walker would be the actual shooter,
that David Ramsey and Patrick Cuffy would accompany him,
and they would take guns with them in case they needed it.
narrator: And according to Cuffy,
Sidney Dorsey gave the assassins a strict deadline.
- Dorsey firmly believed that if Brown was assassinated
before he was sworn into office,
the judges would appoint Sidney Dorsey
to be the interim sheriff.
- In Sidney's mind, if Derwin is gone,
then maybe I emerge as the best person to lead the agency.
I won the election once,
and maybe I get put back in a position of power.
- Cuffy told us that on the night of the murder,
everything went exactly as planned.
They ran up to him,
and Melvin Walker with the Intratec-9
fired the weapon...
[gunfire]
Many, many, many times.
Said they ran through the woods, got back in the car,
left, and went straight to Cuffy's home.
narrator: And Patrick Cuffy reveals that Sidney Dorsey
had no plans to stop with Derwin.
- There was a hit list that Sidney Dorsey had.
The audacity of having a list of people
that you are now targeting to be killed,
that was incredible to me.
- That hit list included the DA, J. Tom Morgan.
It included the public safety director, Thomas Brown.
It even included local reporter Dale Cardwell.
- Cuffy said that I was next on the list
because of my investigation of the corruption.
narrator: Investigators are stunned by Cuffy's story.
But with his history of lying to police,
they need additional witnesses
and physical evidence to back it up.
- Cuffy told us how David Ramsey had gotten the gun
and Paul Skyers had thrown the gun into a sewer.
I asked Cuffy, would Paul Skyers be willing
to come in and testify under the same agreement?
He called Skyers, and Skyers came in.
He corroborated everything Cuffy said,
and Skyers eventually led us to the sewer
where we were able to retrieve the weapon.
It was an Intratec-9 with a large magazine
that could hold 20 rounds of ammunition.
It had rusted to such a degree that the GBI
could not do forensics on it, but it certainly fit
the type of weapon that killed Derwin Brown.
- And that's when a murder warrant
was issued for Sidney Dorsey.
narrator: Almost one year after Derwin Brown
was assassinated in front of his home,
Sidney Dorsey is arrested for his murder.
- The sentiment of the public was just utter disappointment.
This was a man who had been considered
by many to be a hero.
And the thought that he could be responsible
for gunning down someone who had just defeated him
was just really hard to accept.
narrator: Melvin Walker and David Ramsey
are also arrested for their parts in the assassination.
Walker, Ramsey, and Dorsey maintain their innocence.
Patrick Cuffy and Paul Skyers are both granted immunity
in exchange for their testimonies.
- I was hoping that everybody who was involved
in the murder of Derwin Brown would be prosecuted.
But sometimes you have to make those deals
to get an indictment.
- As a prosecutor, there probably
is no higher case than you trying
to find the killers of the sheriff
of the very county where you serve as DA.
The stakes were so high.
narrator: The trials, unlike any in the history
of Atlanta law enforcement, begin in March of 2002.
- We tried Walker and Ramsey first,
with the motivation that they were going to get better jobs
in the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department
if they participate in this murder.
- Patrick Cuffy was a key witness,
but he had some credibility issues on the stand.
Because his character was so flawed,
that jury just couldn't buy it.
- The defense team for Walker and Ramsey
did a good job of making Patrick Cuffy look like a liar
and would say anything to get out
of the felony murder count.
So the immunity agreement was a big problem.
The jury announced that they were not guilty.
It was devastating to us.
- When Walker and Ramsey were acquitted,
I was flabbergasted.
They had faith in the case,
so I'm going along with their faith.
I don't even understand how it could go the way it went.
Period.
narrator: With Sidney Dorsey's hit men exonerated
and two more granted immunity, the people of Atlanta worry
that nobody will be held accountable
for Sheriff Derwin Brown's murder.
- The public was very disappointed.
- The next morning, the Atlanta paper
said that I'd made a deal with the devil,
and the devil was winning.
The dynamics changed completely.
What appeared to be a slam dunk was not a slam dunk.
And now the question was, were we going to be able
to convict Dorsey of anything?
narrator: After the shocking acquittal
of Melvin Walker and David Ramsey
in the murder of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown,
everyone in DeKalb County is anxious to see
if the alleged mastermind, Sheriff Sidney Dorsey,
will be convicted for his part in the assassination plot.
[dramatic music]
- From the public's perspective,
if the prosecutors couldn't get Walker and Ramsey,
they certainly weren't gonna be able to get Sidney Dorsey.
And so the public's confidence, it started to wane.
- We were devastated, number one,
and we were absolutely concerned that Dorsey
may get off as well.
We had a meeting with J. Tom Morgan,
and I did voice my opinion.
- The first strategy was to add a corruption account
to the indictment.
That enabled us to tell a story about the corruption
at the jail and the motivation for Dorsey
to kill the sheriff-elect.
Going into it, we knew we had a good shot
at convicting Mr. Dorsey of corruption.
We did not know whether or not we were going to be able
to convict him of murder.
narrator: As the trial kicks off,
the tension in the courthouse is palpable.
And the pressure is on for the prosecutors
to get it right this time.
- 2 1/2 years of publicity
has moved Dorsey's trial to Albany in South Georgia.
And according to some court observers
familiar with the case, it might not be enough.
- Well, the atmosphere of trial--
this is something that I've never been involved with.
There was media from all over the country there.
There were a lot of spectators in the courtroom.
People could not believe that this had happened.
- Unlike the other trial, we had witnesses
that corroborated everything we were saying.
The owner of a bonding company told us
that she'd had a conversation with Dorsey,
and she asked what was Mr. Dorsey going to do
when he was no longer sheriff.
And Mr. Dorsey told her that Derwin would not be around,
and she said that Dorsey put his finger to his temple
and pulled the trigger and didn't say anything else.
- That was a lot.
It's a lot for the community to withstand.
It was a lot to understand that a life was taken
because he was so afraid of losing the power that they had,
that they were willing to go to those lengths.
narrator: But will it be enough to get a conviction?
- After three days of deliberation,
the jury came back and said they had a verdict.
The judge looked at the verdict form,
then asked me to stand up and read it
in front of the courtroom and millions of people
who are watching it on live television.
Count one was murder.
We the jury find the defendant, as to count one, guilty.
Guilty. Count two, corruption.
Guilty.
- The moment we heard the verdict, it was--
we had a whole, you know, woosah.
It was a sigh of relief that finally somebody gets it.
He's gonna go down for this.
- When the verdict came back, Sidney was just stoic.
People were looking for some sort of reaction,
whether it be disappointed or whether it be remorseful.
But the public got nothing, and that did not help.
- As to count-one murder, you were found guilty.
I sentence you to life.
narrator: The judge sentences Sidney Dorsey
to life in prison plus 20 years.
- At the sentencing for Dorsey,
I told him I couldn't forgive him.
I just don't understand how he could do it.
Like, you took a very good person away,
not just from us but from the community.
- I was so relieved.
It had a profound effect on me because I started thinking,
is there any justice for wanting to do the right thing?
narrator: While it is a huge victory,
there is still the lingering feeling
that alleged assassins Melvin Walker and David Ramsey
should also be in prison for Derwin's death.
- Several months later, the Feds indicted
Walker and Ramsey on depriving Derwin Brown
of his civil rights,
and they are now serving life in federal prison
for the assassination of Derwin Brown.
- When they got them the second time around,
I thought the circle has now been completed.
We now have the totality of this case.
It will take a while for the shadow
of the Sidney Dorsey case to go away.
It will have an indelible stain on law enforcement
in the state of Georgia.
narrator: In the end,
Derwin Brown fulfilled his promise
to rid DeKalb County of the corruption
caused by Sidney Dorsey.
And in turn, the community continues to celebrate
his life and career.
- They had named a police precinct after Derwin Brown,
and there is a bridge there on Glenwood Road
that's named in his honor.
- In addition to South Precinct
being the Derwin Brown Memorial Bridge,
we started a non-profit organization,
the Derwin and Phyllis Brown Foundation,
where people really knew him, loved him,
and definitely wanna uphold that standard of who he was.
My father was the rock.
He was the pillar of the entire family.
My father was a stand-up guy.
That is part of his legacy of who he was.
So I think he's, you know, just smiling,
and I think he's saying, "Okay, keep moving forward.
You're on the right path."
* *