Cops: Sheriff Shot The Sheriff

A former sheriff was arrested and charged with murder Friday in the slaying of his successor just days before he was to take office, authorities said.

Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey is one of three men charged with murder in connection with the ambushing of Derwin Brown last December. In August, Brown, 46, had defeated Dorsey in a bitter runoff after promising to clean up a department plagued by years of corruption.

Former sheriff's deputy Melvin Walker of Conyers and Daniel Isaiah Ramsey, whom Dorsey tried to recruit as a sheriff's deputy, were also charged.

All three men were arrested without incident Friday, DeKalb Police Chief E.J. Moody said. Dorsey surrendered himself at police headquarters, and the other two men were arrested at their homes, he said.

Authorities declined to say whether they believed any of the men pulled the trigger Dec. 15, 2000. Brown was shot 11 times in front of his home in what the sheriff's department called an assassination.

"This has been a long 11 months," Moody said. "It's been a long haul. It's been a long time getting here."

Authorities awoke 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."

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."

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.

DeKalb's assistant chief of police, Eddie Moody, said last year that he had no doubt Brown was killed because of his proposed reforms.

In interviews in the weeks 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."

Walker and Ramsey both were charged in March with lying to investigators looking into the Brown slaying. Ramsey applied for a job in the DeKalb sheriff's office but was rejected for falsifying his employment history.

As recently as August, the district attorney said the investigation into Brown's murder had stalled, with no fresh evidence collected in months. Morgan had characterized the case as "dead in the water."

But a break in the investigation apparently came earlier 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, was allowed to plead guilty to assault Wednesday.

Authorities have said they believe the March shootout anthe Brown murder are somehow related.

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