Page 3 - Derwin Brown News Today

Very nervous. because of the corruption. and i just felt like something could happen to him, you know. and he said, mommy, im not afraid to die for what i believe in. remember martin luther king? he took out what he believed in. and i said to him, i said, well, thats martin luther king. im your mother. >> with only a few months until his inauguration, brown wasted no time preparing to clean house in the sheriffs department. he made a long list of everyone he was going to fire. >> he felt that no...

Dorsey now says that right after the election, he wrote a note to patrick cuffy saying he should assassinate sheriff-elect, derwin brown. >> apparently, i guess, the only thing to say is he had the same -- he had the same evil within -- in his heart as i did. >> dorsey told the prosecutor that cuffy replied, quote, we are way ahead of you, and ate the note. >> he thinks he made a mistake and wanted someone to say whether his mistake made him a murderer. >> to me thats not really a confession. it...

Same feeling when you lose a brother in blue, be it that he was a political adversary or not. >> derwins own family was mystified. >> do you have any idea who did this? >> none. >> any suspects in your mind? >> no. ♪ >> more than 4,000 people attended derwin browns funeral. browns wife and five children watched as hundreds of officers passed by the flag-draped coffin. michael brown is the son who saw his father in the driveway the moment before he died. >> because i know hes watching and i kno...

Outgoing sheriff sidney dorsey was arrested and charged with ordering the ambush and assassination of brown. the man that defeated dorsey in the sheriffs race and with promising promotions to four of his deputies in return for the killing. >> did you do it? did you do it? >> innocent. innocent. >> two of those deputies, melvin walker and david ramsey, were also arrested. unable to crack the case for nearly a year, prosecutors agreed not to charge the other two admitted co-conspirators, patrick c...

Nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge! former dekalb county sheriff, sidney dorsey, was now in jail for the rest of his life. convicted of ordering four deputy sheriffs to assassinate derwin brown, the man who defeated him in the 2000 election for sheriff. prosecutors were able to prove dorsey ran a sheriffs office and a jail rife with corruption. including sexual misconduct, bribery and ordering emplo...

Lets go home and celebrate again, you know. >> he was -- could not get into his driveway because there were some cars there. he parked on the road. he was walking to the door with the roses in his hand. >> initially, i heard what i thought were fire crackers. because it just went pop, pop. but by the time it popped again, i realized it was gunshots. and i have to say that for once in my life, i remembered everything derwin ever told me to do. i told everybody to get down and get out of the room....

Derwin brown was dead. the popular former police captain who campaigned for sheriff and won on the promise of reform, was gunned down in his front yard just before christmas 2000, three days before he was to be inaugurated. >> it was like a dream. i guess because i really thought i was in a dream, i had -- you know, i dreamt that i was strong and took care of business the way derwin would have wanted me to take care of business. >> i was in shock. i was -- i was just in shock. i couldnt do anyth...

Were it not for a huge tactical mistake that sid dorsey, himself, made, he could be walking the streets right now. >> it is widely believed that had dorsey decided to be tried in dekalb, he may have easily been acquitted, like walker and ramsey. >> dorsey was still a popular, well-known figure in dekalb county. and i think a dekalb county jury would have been very skeptical of the evidence against him. >> im going to be in prison on the outside, but ill be free on the inside. >> before his sente...

The verdict was read on july 10th, 2002. >> we, the jury, find the defendant as to count one guilty. as to count two, guilty. >> dorsey was convicted of 12 of 15 counts of murder, racketeering, violation of the oath of office and eight counts of theft. >> as to count three, guilty. as to count four, not guilty. as to count five, not guilty. as to count six, guilty. >> phyllis and robert brown collapsed in an embrace. >> count eight, guilty. as to count nine, guilty. >> we were able to show that ...

>> this was not a domestic. this was not a botched robbery, this was an assassination. who would want the sheriff elect assassinated? >> brown had been preparing to shake things up at the jail, secretly meeting with the district attorney swapping stories about corruption by outgoing sheriff, sidney dorsey. >> i just had dinner with derwin a week before he was murdered, and then to see him later in the morgue right before the autopsy started was one of those images i will never forget. >> the kil...