Ex-Sheriff Given Life Term for Murder of Rival

A Georgia judge sentenced a former county sheriff to life in prison Thursday for killing his successor nearly two years ago in a desperate attempt to cover up corruption.

Sidney Dorsey, formerly sheriff of De Kalb County, was found guilty last month of arranging the killing of Derwin Brown, a veteran police officer who defeated him in a runoff election Aug. 8, 2000.

On Dec. 15, 2000, as the 46-year-old Brown was returning home from a pre-Christmas party, he was hit by a dozen bullets and later died. The attack came three days before he was to assume office.

“I have heard evidence of the many good things you did while sheriff,” Superior Judge Cynthia Becker told Dorsey.

“Unfortunately, the things you did that were corrupt ... cast a blemish and a pall on that department.”

Dorsey, 63, called himself an “innocent man,” saying, “I do not have the blood of the sheriff-elect on my hands.”

The audacious killing and the trial that followed drew national attention as a textbook case of official corruption as the Albany, Ga., jury added counts of racketeering, theft and violation of oath of office to the murder conviction. Becker sentenced Dorsey to 23 years on the corruption charges.

The trial was moved to Albany, 180 miles south of Atlanta, after a judge decided publicity made finding a fair jury there impossible.

Prosecutors had portrayed Dorsey as a “panicking man” who arranged the murder to conceal numerous irregularities, including using sheriff’s office personnel to staff his personal security business and to run errands for him.

“Sidney Dorsey stole a little bit every day,” Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. John Petrey told the jury. “The assassination of Derwin Brown was a desperate move by a panicking man whose fool’s paradise was being snatched from him.”

Defense lawyers painted a picture of Dorsey as a public official who may have made some bad decisions but was not a killer, asserting that two other people involved in the murder plot had acted alone.

Before sentencing, Brown’s son Marlin Robinson took the witness stand, saying, “My father was murdered in hopes of concealing wrongdoings.”

The sheriff-elect’s widow, Phyllis, also testified and urged a tough sentence: “I don’t have anything left but a nameplate.”

Brown’s mother, Burkena, told the court that “there is a hole where my heart used to be.”

Before sentencing, Dorsey told Becker he believed the jurors would reject the prosecution’s case.

“I never thought that an innocent man would be convicted of a crime he didn’t do,” the former sheriff said.

“I know you are going to sentence me severely,” Dorsey said. “But I do not have the blood of Derwin Brown on my hands.

“I am going to be in prison on the outside, but I’ll be free on the inside because I do not have the blood of the sheriff-elect on my hands.... I did not play a role in the diabolical and horrible murder.”

With a note of resignation in his voice, he added: “Here I am.”

Turning to the corruption conviction, he said he never intended to steal.

In imposing the sentence, Becker said Dorsey breached his fiduciary duties as a public official, noting he even sent sheriff’s deputies to take his family to Disney World in Florida.

“Words cannot express the magnitude of this case,” Dist. Atty. J. Tom Morgan said when the sentencing hearing was over. “A sworn official, an elected official, used the power of his position to order the assassination of another elected official.”