Original subtitles

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[suspenseful music]

creates bonds unlike any other profession.

Cops share a deep sense of belonging,

and an attack on one of them

is seen as an attack on all.

In the year 2000,

in DeKalb County, Georgia,

that bond is put to a severe test.

[gunfire blasting] [suspenseful music]

- This murder shook the world.

This was unheard of.

- Not just a murder of anyone,

but a murder of a police officer,

and not just the murder of a police officer,

but the murder of a police officer

who'd been elected sheriff

that sent shockwaves through the law enforcement community.

[suspenseful music]

- In November,

County Police Captain Derwin Brown wins

an upset victory in a hard-fought election

for county sheriff.

- No one thought that

Derwin Brown could win the general election.

- But in December,

only the days before he's to be sworn in,

Brown is gunned down in his own driveway.

[suspenseful music] [gunfire blasting]

- He could hear it in my voice.

And I was like, "Daddy's been shot."

- The shooter was absolutely intent

on making sure that he didn't survive.

- What we did not know is why?

- Detectives from multiple agencies

are now forced to answer a terrifying question.

[suspenseful music]

Is it possible that the killer is one of their own?

[striking dramatic music]

[gentle dramatic music]

[birds chirping]

[audience applauding]

- A lot of people stepped forward.

They believed in me,

and I'm very grateful for that.

[audience applauding]

- [Alan] It'd been a hard-fought campaign

Derwin Brown had challenged

a powerful and popular incumbent,

DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey,

and against all odds, he had triumphed.

[audience applauding]

- [Man] And welcome the man of the hour,

Sheriff, Derwin Brown.

[audience applauding]

- After the election,

the sheriffs then have to go to sheriff's school.

He was excited, and he was ready to get to work.

[gentle piano music]

- On Friday, December 15th,

Derwin was graduating from that academy.

[audience applauding]

His wife, Phyllis and his daughter, Brandy,

were there to watch him.

- [Brandy] Which was also my mother's birthday.

He was beaming.

He was just so happy and so proud.

It was a beautiful day.

[gentle dramatic music]

at one of his favorite restaurants in the vicinity.

- [J. Tom] This was a private party of family

and close campaign workers.

He was to be sworn in Monday morning.

- [Alan] Brown's wife, Phyllis, tells the family

she had a headache and wants to go home early,

but her real reason for leaving

is to surprise her husband with a gift.

- [J. Tom] Phyllis had a specially made uniform for him.

Derwin's a big man.

He's 245 pounds,

not only did she want

a uniform that fit him well,

but one that looked nice on him.

[gentle dramatic music]

- [Brandy] She wanted to go home before him to hang it up,

so that when he walked through the door,

it would be the first thing that he saw.

- [Alan] As the party winds down,

Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown

shakes a few last hands

and heads to his car.

He wants to pick up roses

to celebrate his wife's birthday when he gets home.

[gentle dramatic music]

- [Brandy] I was like, "Dad, hey,

"I'm going to go. I'm tired."

I gave him a hug and told him that I love him,

and he said, "Okay, baby, I love you too."

And I told him I was proud of him.

He said, "I'll see you in the morning."

I said, "I'll see you in the morning."

[somber dramatic music]

[thunder rumbling]

- It was raining very hard that night,

and he had pulled into his driveway and had gotten out,

had gotten some flowers that he had picked up for his wife

[rain pattering]

and was walking towards his house.

- [Alan] Derwin and Phyllis's son, Robert,

who skipped the celebratory dinner,

is working on his computer

in the living room.

- Robert could see his dad

walking up the walk to the door.

[ominous music]

He hears something

and his dad turns as if to talk to someone,

[ominous music]

and that's when Robert

heard the gunshots.

[gunfire blasting] [suspenseful music]

Phyllis is inside the house,

and she realized that she was listening to gunfire,

but she thought the gunfire was next door.

She called 911.

- [Operator] 911. Where is your emergency?

- [J. Tom] She ran to the door.

[suspenseful music]

[tense sinister music]

She saw Derwin's body, and he was still.

She immediately tells the 911 operator,

"Captain Brown has been shot.

Please send an ambulance."

[intense dramatic music]

[emergency siren wailing]

- [Alan] An ambulance races the scene.

Word flashes through the law enforcement community:

One of their own has been attacked.

[suspenseful music]

[sirens wailing loudly]

- [Chris] Anytime an officer's down,

an officer's been shot,

everybody comes.

[sirens wailing]

[telephone ringing]

- [Brandy] I don't even think we had been home

maybe 30 minutes, and the phone rings.

It is my mother's good friend,

and she was like, "Derwin's been shot."

[somber dramatic music]

and I'm yelling at the top of the steps to my husband,

and I yell his name and he could hear it in my voice.

And so he ran to the bottom of the steps.

And he's like, "What is wrong?"

and I was like, "Daddy's been shot."

[reflective dramatic music]

I literally forgot how to breathe.

Finally, I get up.

We run and we get in the car,

and I'm like telling my husband,

I was like, "Run every [beep] red light you see.

I don't give a damn."

I said, "Every police officer that gets behind you

will have to follow us.

Do not [beep] stop."

[engine revving]

[emergency siren wailing]

- [Alan] The ambulance rushes Derwin Brown

to DeKalb General Hospital.

[somber dramatic music]

- [Brandy] We got to the hospital.

His chief of staff comes out.

He looked straight ahead at the wall.

He wouldn't look at any of us in our face,

and he said, "He didn't make it."

And I'm like, "What the [beep] do you mean he didn't make it?"

[intense dramatic music]

It was crazy after that.

It was people throwing up.

My brothers was punching the wall.

It was just screaming.

It was just like chaos.

[suspenseful music]

- Give him a hand please as we congratulate the...

[tense suspenseful music] [announcer speaking faintly]

- [Brandy] I could not fathom it.

I could not understand

how something like this could happen to my father.

My mother, she was calm and she was trying to calm me.

As a mother,

I can only imagine in that moment you're

trying to keep yourself together for your kids.

[muffled chatter on radio]

- [Alan] The DeKalb County Police have arrived

at the Brown residence in force

to seal off the street and begin their investigation.

For the cops, this is no regular crime scene.

This is a death in the family.

[siren wailing] [dramatic music]

[gentle music]

- [J. Tom] The law enforcement community

view Derwin as one of their own.

Derwin and I had started our career

serving DeKalb County almost at the same time.

He went into the police department.

I went into the DA's office.

We were close professionally.

- Derwin was raised in New York.

He moved to Atlanta,

pursued a law enforcement career, married Phyllis Brown.

They were a wonderful couple.

They raised great children.

They were a rock in their community

and meant a lot to a lot of people.

[somber instrumental music]

- [Brandy] For us, growing up in law enforcement is all we knew.

And so when I looked at my father

and all of his police buddies,

they were all like family for us.

[muffled chatter on radio]

- [J. Tom] Those in the DeKalb County Police Department

that knew Derwin many of them were friends with Derwin.

They had worked with him, under him, and above him.

All respected him,

appreciated his candor and his honesty.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Chris] The fact that he was a police officer,

that's always going to get the blood flowing.

Not just the murder of a police officer,

but the murder of a police officer

who'd been elected sheriff and was about to take office.

[suspenseful music]

That's the threat that sent shockwaves

through the whole law enforcement community.

That somebody would be this brazen.

The tension and the gravity

just kept increasing.

[sirens wailing]

- [J. Tom] Under our protocol,

if a police officer is killed in the line of duty,

the district attorney has to be present.

[muffled chatter on radio]

So I went immediately to the crime scene.

It is raining a hard Georgia cold rain.

[somber dramatic music] [muffled chatter on radio]

- [Rodney] It was terrible conditions

to investigate an outdoor crime scene.

- [J. Tom] The lights are on generators.

These great big lights that make nighttime daytime.

- [Chris] Heavy rain is not ideal for a crime scene,

because it tends to wash things away

and move things around.

So there, you know, not much of a chance

for a lot of fingerprints.

- [J. Tom] I was talking with one of the crime scene techs

that I knew and I asked her, I said,

"Why are there so many red flags?"

And she said, "Well, every red flag

is where we found a spent cartridge."

[intense dramatic music]

- [Chris] There were a lot of shell casings.

I want to say about 13 to 15 shell casings.

They were 9mm, which generally is thought

to be with a pistol, with a handgun.

police find little physical evidence at the crime scene.

Derwin's family heard the shots,

but no one actually saw the shooting happen.

[gunfire blasting]

- [J. Tom] I said, "Let's get these bullets

to the GBI as quickly as we can.

And these cartridges, I want to know

how many guns were being used in this."

[suspenseful music]

- [Alan] The GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,

immediately begins their analysis of the shell casings.

The shooting of an incoming sheriff just days before

taking office triggers an all-hands-on-deck response.

[intense dramatic music]

- This murder shook the world.

This was unheard of,

someone would do something like this.

Even veteran law enforcement officers were shocked.

- [Alan] Agencies from Washington to Atlanta

coordinate their all-out hunt for Derwin Brown's killer.

[striking dramatic music]

- [[Agent Mays] There was a task force that was created

to investigate Derwin Brown's murder.

DeKalb County Police Department

was the lead agency in investigating the murder.

- [Chris] And my pager went off and the district attorney

sent me a message that said, "You know, get your stuff

and go over to the police department.

You're on the task force."

[suspenseful music]

that we work with regularly,

they were there as was

Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

- [Chris] The autopsy report, it showed that

he was struck by multiple projectiles,

several of which would've been fatal.

- [J. Tom] Derwin's body was riddled with bullet holes.

[dramatic music]

So my first conclusion is that

there had to be multiple shooters.

[suspenseful music]

- [Chris] Double-digit numbers of shots fired

tells me that the shooter was absolutely

intent on making sure that he didn't survive.

- [J. Tom] We quickly determined it was an assassination

by people who wanted Derwin Brown dead.

[gunfire blasting] [suspenseful music]

What we did not know is why.

- [Alan] But there's one aspect of the killing

that no one can ignore: the timing.

- [Rodney] Somebody is assassinated in their driveway

three days before they are

sworn into a new office in a new career.

Doesn't sound like a coincidence.

[ominous music]

[striking dramatic music]

- [Alan] Coming up.

- [Rodney] At some point you become aware

that the unimaginable has taken place

and someone has broken their oath of office

and committed a crime.

- [J. Tom] This is a fellow officer in blue.

We don't kill people.

[gunfire blasting]

[dramatic music]

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[muffled chatter on radio]

of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown

[gun fires]

are convinced he was targeted for assassination,

but by whom?

Was he gunned down by someone who did not want

him to take the sheriff's office three days later?

For answers, they turn first

to the evidence from the crime scene.

[siren wailing in distance]

[striking dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] Derwin is killed Friday night.

the bullets and the cartridges

and had a conclusion that the 16 shots,

12 of which entered Derwin's body,

had all come from the same gun.

So my theory that there were

multiple people involved had to be put on hold

when I realized that it was one gun, one shooter.

[suspenseful music]

- [Rodney] They were able to identify the type of weapon

that most likely had been fired, that particular bullet.

- [Chris] It was a TEC-9, which looks like a submachine gun

but is really just kind of a glorified 9mm pistol.

- [J. Tom] It had a reputation of really being used

by drug dealers.

[intense suspenseful music]

- [Alan] This revelation puts a whole

new lead into play for investigators.

- He had a long career in narcotics,

and so now as you're looking at,

"Okay, is this some kind of payback from some narcotics gang

or some semi-organized crime or something like that?"

- [J. Tom] I know that he made a lot of cases

and was involved in a lot of arrests.

- [Alan] A team of investigators

starts combing through Derwin Brown's cases

from his days working undercover in narcotics.

At the same time,

one voice in the room insists that the task force

listen to the troublesome nagging in their gut.

The timing of this killing can't be coincidental.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Rodney] At some point early on

it became pretty apparent to us that the only person

who was going to benefit from the death of Derwin Brown,

even remotely, would've been Sidney Dorsey.

- [Alan] Sidney Dorsey, the sheriff whom Derwin Brown

had just defeated in a rough electoral contest.

The man who is at that very moment

still sitting in the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office,

the very idea of questioning one of their own leaves

some of the cops speechless.

- [Chris] It was kind of inconceivable

to think that the sheriff would've been behind this.

And I remember at our first meeting,

Rodney Maddox said,

"You know, we've got to pursue that."

But I think there was some hesitation

to really go after that

because it seemed so ludicrous.

[striking dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] This is a fellow officer in blue.

We don't kill people.

- [Alan] Commander Maddox briefs those task force members

not familiar with the history of Sidney Dorsey

and Derwin Brown,

once brothers in blue.

- [Rodney] You've got to look at all possibilities,

even some of them far-fetched.

- [Alan] The animosity between the two men began in 2000

when Brown publicly declared that Sidney Dorsey

was crooked and should be replaced.

- [J. Tom] Derwin's message was,

"The sheriff's department is corrupt,

and if you like me, I will clean it up."

- [Alan] From the beginning,

Brown lagged far behind in the polls.

- [J. Tom] Derwin was not a campaigner,

and he did not have near the charisma that Mr. Dorsey did.

But he was on a mission.

[striking dramatic music]

- [Alan] And then days before the critical vote,

Reporter Dale Cardwell got a blockbuster tip

that Sheriff Dorsey was using his position

to line his own pockets.

And that was just the beginning.

- There was misogyny.

There was womanizing.

There was trading sex for promotions.

It was misuse of funds.

- [Chris] When some of the stuff came out,

it really, I think, turned the tide

of the election towards Derwin Brown.

- [Reporter] It was a major upset.

- [Brandy] He actually pulled off the unthinkable.

Something that everybody thought that he could not do,

he did it, and he won.

[dramatic music]

- [Alan] And then three days before

Brown was to replace Sidney Dorsey

as Sheriff of DeKalb County,

[gunfire blasting]

he was murdered in his driveway.

[thunder rumbling]

[suspenseful music]

- [Rodney] With the candidate not being able to take office,

did Sidney Dorsey somehow think that

he might be able to get back on a ballot,

maybe even get lucky and be named interim sheriff

since he was already there?

[dramatic music]

- [Alan] If Maddox's theory is true,

the implications for DeKalb

law enforcement are terrifying.

- [Rodney] You can't help but think that

the unimaginable has taken place,

and someone has broken their oath of office

and committed a crime.

- [Dale] Within the law enforcement community,

there was shock, but there was also this

sense of embarrassment, maybe even shame that,

A, one of our brothers could be murdered in this fashion

and worse yet, that maybe it was one of our own that did it.

[intense dramatic music]

to kill a cop for just doing his job,

to me is just a thug with a badge and a gun,

and they don't care anything about any oath.

[tense music]

- [Chris] But you got to have evidence.

You can't just have a motive

or a theory or a hypothesis.

- [Rodney] So myself and the chief of detectives

visit Sheriff Dorsey just a few days after the murder.

- [J. Tom] It is tremendously more difficult

to interview someone in law enforcement

because they've done the interviewing before,

especially someone like Dorsey who was a homicide detective.

When you're interviewing a law enforcement person

who's been taught how to interrogate,

they know every trick in the book.

[striking suspenseful music]

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- [Alan] Detectives investigating

[gunfire blasting]

believe that the outgoing sheriff,

Sidney Dorsey may be Brown's killer.

So when they meet with him,

detectives tread lightly,

but naturally want to know where

Dorsey was at the time of the murder?

[eerie ominous music]

- [J. Tom] Sidney Dorsey had an airtight alibi.

[gentle dramatic music]

Dorsey told the detectives

he was with his wife.

That was also confirmed by our director of public safety

who had seen Dorsey and his wife at a function in Atlanta

shortly before the murder.

There was not enough time for Dorsey to leave that function,

kill Derwin Brown, and get home.

- [Chris] Because of the nature of the office

and the political hot potato that it was,

he wasn't interviewed.

We gave Sidney Dorsey a list of questions

that we asked him to respond to in writing,

which you would never do in a homicide investigation.

- [Rodney] We left that meeting and I just told him, I said,

"Well, rest assured we've got some good detectives,

and we'll find out who did it."

[ominous music]

- [Chris[ I don't think that anybody thought

that Sidney Dorsey was standing in Derwin Brown's

driveway firing a gun at him, but could Sidney Dorsey have

had somebody do that on his behalf?

That was certainly a possibility that we considered.

- [Dale] I think it created an air of suspicion,

and nobody knew who they could trust.

- [Agent Mays] You see a cop that's gone bad or whatever,

they know there's an added sense of danger involved

because this person has been trained.

- You're dealing with people that have skills

that know how not to get caught,

and so it makes it a lot more difficult

to get to the bottom of it.

[intense dramatic music]

[solemn bagpipe music]

- [Alan] Six days after his murder,

the law enforcement community

of DeKalb County buries Derwin Brown.

[soft somber music]

- [Brandy] When we were heading to the church,

they shut down the expressway

and to see all of the police officers,

all of the law enforcement lined up down the expressway

at attention showing their respect

it was beautiful.

[soft somber music]

- [J. Tom] The funeral was at Chapel Hill Harvester Church,

which at the time was the largest church in DeKalb County.

And every seat was full,

and every seat in the adjoining chapel was full.

There was easily over 2,000 people.

- [Alan] And yet despite the massive turnout,

one law enforcement officer in particular is absent.

[dramatic music]

- [Chris] Sidney Dorsey made the decision

to not attend Derwin Brown's funeral,

which was a big deal,

but he said he did it out of respect to the Brown family,

so as not not to be a distraction.

- [Alan] Detectives remain suspicious of Sidney Dorsey

but are roadblocked by the lack

of any concrete evidence against him.

And with the clock ticking,

the task force broadens its search for suspects.

[intense dramatic music]

Detectives start with the alleged corruption

in the sheriff's office

where some employees had caught Derwin's attention.

[intense ominous music]

- [J. Tom] The Sheriff in DeKalb County has 450 employees,

and Derwin Brown had singled out 38 people

that he was going to fire the first day he was in office.

He had some inside information

that these people needed to go.

- [Dale] And so he mailed out termination letters saying,

"I'm going to give you notice that when I take office,

you won't have a job."

[intense dramatic music]

- [Alan] Every one of these individuals

had an ax to grind against the incoming sheriff,

and every one of them was still working inside

the sheriff's department when Derwin Brown was killed.

[gunfire blasting]

- Any one of those 38 people that were

going to be terminated would not have been happy

to see Derwin Brown become Sheriff of DeKalb County.

- [Alan] Detectives of the task force tracked down

all 38 of the sheriff's office employees

that Derwin Brown planned to fire on his first day.

- [Chris] We interviewed each of those people.

We got timelines from them.

None of that really turned up

very much that was actionable,

[suspenseful music]

with the exception of Patrick Cuffy.

Patrick Cuffy was a full deputy,

so he was a sworn law enforcement officer,

but Patrick Cuffy never really functioned

as a law enforcement officer.

He was essentially Sidney Dorsey's "Man Friday".

He was his enforcer.

He was his go-to guy.

He had the authority of the sheriff.

He could tell people what to do.

He was untouchable in the sheriff's office.

officer in the department next to Dorsey,

earning $90,000 a year, because he just simply reported

that he was working overtime

and his supervisors had to look the other way

because Sidney Dorsey said he's going to get the money.

- [Alan] So the DeKalb County Police

want to know where Dorsey's pet deputy

was on the night of Derwin Brown's murder.

- [J. Tom] Cuffy said that he was with his three buddies.

David Ramsey and Paul Skyers were there at Cuffy's house.

There was another sheriff's deputy there

named Melvin Walker,

and he corroborated what everybody else has said.

That they were all there just palling around.

They all corroborated each other.

[gentle dramatic music]

We didn't have anything close to probable cause.

Even to use the word "suspect",

is giving them too much credit.

- [Alan] The cops are highly suspicious of Cuffy,

but like his former boss, Sidney Dorsey,

he has a solid alibi.

for his overtime abuses.

[somber dramatic music]

But as the weeks pass,

the investigation loses steam.

The alternate theory,

that a vengeful drug dealer shot Derwin Brown,

isn't producing any results either.

- [J. Tom] The leads were not panning out.

The possibility it could have been a vengeful killing

by someone he arrested sometime,

all that, none of that, was showing any real promise.

- [Chris] We weren't able to turn up anything that indicated

that it was something from his past narcotics career

that really stood out.

- [Alan] December turns to January, then February.

The investigation is grinding down to a standstill.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Brandy] It was like a nightmare

that you were just praying you would wake up from.

Why was it so hard to put together?

- [J. Tom] That was so frustrating.

There was nothing.

[intense suspenseful music]

[bird squawking]

- [Alan] The months of nothing suddenly turned into something

most surprising.

[bells tolling in distance]

- [Dale] I get a call from a law enforcement source that says,

"Hey, there's been a shootout at Patrick Cuffy's house,

[intense suspenseful music]

and Patrick Cuffy is dead."

[intense suspenseful music]

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- [Alan] It's a shocking development

in the Derwin Brown murder case.

For months, former sheriff's deputy

Patrick Cuffy has been refusing to cooperate.

And then on March 18, 2001,

the news races through Georgia law enforcement

that Patrick Cuffy has himself been murdered.

[striking dramatic music]

- [Chris] There are all sorts of news reports

that Cuffy had been assassinated,

and that the mafia was involved.

- [J. Tom] I called my chief investigator.

I said, "Carol, what the hell's going on?"

And she said that it wasn't Patrick Cuffy.

[dramatic music]

It was somebody else.

- [Dale] Turns out Patrick Cuffy wasn't dead,

but someone Patrick Cuffy had an altercation with was.

- [Alan] According to witnesses, as many as five men

had opened fire on one another on Cuffy's suburban street.

All of them except Cuffy had fled the scene.

[dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] Amazingly, only one person was dead:

Jeffrey George, a Canadian

with a long history of drug dealing.

[striking dramatic music]

Police asked, "Does this have any connection

at all to the Sheriff's case?"

And we couldn't figure it out.

[striking dramatic music]

- [Alan] Within weeks, the suspects are rounded up

and law enforcement uncovers that the shootout

was a drug deal gone wrong.

And the drug dealer?

Was former Deputy Sheriff Patrick Cuffy.

[intense dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] Under Georgia law,

if a drug deal goes bad and if somebody's killed,

then the persons involved can be charged with felony murder.

- [Rodney] So Cuffy bought himself a murder charge.

[gun fires]

I mean, it was his dope that was stolen,

so he did have a dog in the fight.

[intense dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] I give the go-ahead for Cuffy to be arrested

and booked into the jail for felony murder without bail.

[jail bars rattling]

- [Chris] At this point, you're looking

for anything that's going to provide

some type of leverage for an investigation.

- [Alan] The cops want to squeeze Patrick Cuffy

for anything he might know about the Derwin Brown murder.

[jail bars clanging]

Investigators leave Cuffy in his jail cell

for weeks to stew over the 30-year sentence

he could get for the shootout at his house.

[dramatic bass music]

- [Dale] Patrick Cuffy came to the conclusion

that he had to save himself.

[suspenseful music]

- [J. Tom] Cuffy's attorney called me,

and he said that his client had information

as to the killing of Derwin Brown, what happened,

[gunfire blasting]

and who was responsible.

[intense dramatic music]

But he would only speak on the condition of immunity.

That he would not be prosecuted

for the murder of Derwin Brown.

And I instantly told him,

"If your client was the instigator

or the planner or the triggerman,

I cannot offer that."

And he said, "He's not."

[intense dramatic music]

- [Alan] Nine months after the brazen slaying

of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown,

investigators believe they're finally

about to get the break they've been praying for.

[suspenseful music]

- [Chris] J. Tom calls me down to his office,

and he says, "Close the door."

And he says that,

[suspenseful music]

He could deliver the murder weapon.

He would give a full statement

and cooperate in all prosecutions.

this development secret from their fellow cops.

[suspenseful music]

- [Agent Mays] No one needs to be talking

about this investigation

because you never know who knows who

in the law enforcement world.

[intense foreboding music]

- [Chris] If there's possibly a law enforcement angle to this,

you have to assume that the perpetrators are going to be

trying to find out what we know and what we don't know,

[striking dramatic music]

and to plan their next move, or to cover their tracks,

or to destroy evidence,

or to possibly interfere with witnesses.

[siren wailing in distance]

This was a high-stakes play on our part,

and so we wanted to keep it very, very hush-hush.

- [J. Tom] So we arranged to have Mr. Cuffy brought

to a secret location in another county.

[suspenseful music]

We didn't even tell the task force.

- [Chris] They bring him in and sits down at the table,

and our strategy for the interview was basically,

wind him up and let him talk.

And we started at the very beginning.

[suspenseful music]

[d

[dra

[drama

[dramati

[dramatic

[dramatic mu

[dramatic musi

[dramatic music]

to tell detectives who killed Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown.

If they believe him,

they'll give him immunity from prosecution.

[tense dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] So Cuffy told us after the campaign,

Sheriff Dorsey called him to his house.

And when he went there,

it was just him and Sheriff Dorsey.

The outgoing sheriff was disheveled.

He was wearing a bathrobe,

and he handed Cuffy a note,

[ominous music]

and the note said, "Kill Derwin Brown."

I said, "Well, what happened to the note?"

[intense dramatic music]

"Well, he took the note back and ate it."

[suspenseful music]

Cuffy said, "I think I can get Paul Skyers,

David Ramsey, and Melvin Walker to help me."

Dorsey knew all three of those,

and he thought they would be excellent choices.

- [Ala

these were the three men Cuffy had claimed to be with

the night of the murder,

[gunfire blasting]

the men who provided him with an alibi.

[gun fires] [dramatic music]

All four men hoped that Sidney Dorsey

would reward them for their service.

- [Chris] Patrick Cuffy and Melvin Walker

already worked for the Sheriff's office.

Their two friends were Paul Skyers and David Ramsey

who wanted to get hired by the Sheriff's office.

- [J. Tom] The tremendous irony of all this is that

two employees of the sheriff's department

who wanted promotions,

two people who wanted to work in the Sheriff's department,

[gunfire blasting]

were willing to kill the sheriff

to get jobs in law enforcement.

[eerie dramatic music]

They wanted a gun that would shoot

multiple rounds of ammunition quickly.

They wanted a gun that was typically used by gangs,

because they didn't want it to look

like law enforcement was involved.

[dramatic music]

Skyers acquired the TEC-9.

On December 15th, Dorsey called Cuffy

and said it had to be done immediately

before Derwin was going to be sworn in Monday morning.

[dramatic music]

- [Alan] According to Patrick Cuffy,

no one volunteered to be the actual triggerman.

So in the end, they had to draw straws.

Melvin Walker drew the short straw.

Paul Skyers was given the job

of driving the getaway car.

Cuffy was the lookout.

Ramsey was the backup shooter

with a weapon of his own.

[tense sinister music]

- [J. Tom] They were under orders to kill Derwin

and anyone else who was with him at the time.

[ominous dramatic music]

[thunder rumbling]

They would've killed the family.

They would've been just collateral kills.

[ominous dramatic music]

Walker was hiding behind the cars.

Cuffy said he saw Derwin.

[suspenseful music]

- [Chris] And then when he came up the driveway, they came out,

and Melvin Walker actually opened fire and killed him.

[thunder rumbling]

[somber piano music]

- [Alan] With Derwin on the ground, the hit squad fled.

The murder had taken only a few seconds.

Although his wife and son were

inside the house the whole time,

the killers never encountered

Brown's family or any other witness.

Cuffy calmly finis

where the murder weapon was hidden.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Chris] The gun was put in a storm drain in Gwinnett County.

And we went out the next day and fished out a TEC-9

from this storm drain exactly where he said he put it.

[striking dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] We wanted to see how much that Cuffy could tell us

that we could corroborate by witnesses other than Cuffy.

- [Alan] Skyers agrees to take

and he backs up Cuffy's story.

[striking dramatic music]

because, you know, he knew that Cuffy had been involved

and had probably been the ringleader.

But he knew that there really wasn't going to

be any other way we were going to be able

to prosecute this case without that.

- [Alan] Finally,

after almost a year of investigation,

the task force is ready to arrest Sidney Dorsey,

Melvin Walker, and David Ramsey

for the murder of Derwin Brown.

[suspenseful music]

[siren wailing]

- [Chris] Walker and Ramsey were home

- [Alan] But when the detectives go to arrest Sidney Dorsey,

it doesn't go quite as smoothly.

[eerie dramatic music]

- [Agent Mays] We went to his residence that night,

and, you know, very cautious.

To arrest a law enforcement officer,

you have to be very careful,

because they're trained,

and they know how to shoot.

And I'm sure Sidney Dorsey

had a lot of weapons in his residence.

[dramatic music]

And I remember going up to the front door,

and his wife came to the door,

and we asked, "Was he there?"

[dramatic music]

And he wasn't home.

[suspenseful music]

- [Chris] We didn't know: Would Dorsey flee?

Would he make a violent last stand?

[suspenseful music]

We're going after people with really nothing to lose.

[siren wailing]

[intense dramatic music]

[tense dramatic music] - [Alan] At long last, police have made arrests

in the case of murdered Sheriff Derwin Brown.

They put the cuffs on two of the gunmen

who committed the crime.

[gunfire blasting]

But police tactical units are still hunting the man

who they believed masterminded the plot:

Brown's predecessor, Sheriff Sidney Dorsey.

[siren wailing] [dramatic music]

[muffled chatter on radio]

- [J. Tom] Three SWAT teams went out at exactly the same time,

because we didn't want one to alert the other.

[dramatic music]

But his wife alerted him,

and he alerts his attorney,

and his attorney says, "I'm bringing him in,"

because he didn't want Dorsey hurt.

- [Chris] So he and his attorney turned him in

at the police department two o'clock that morning.

- [Alan] But Dorsey's trial will have to wait.

for the two underlings who ambushed Derwin Brown

in his driveway: triggerman Melvin Walker

and the backup shooter David Ramsey.

- [J. Tom] It was going to be a complicated enough trial

for a jury without putting Walker and Ramsey

in with Dorsey.

Walker and Ramsey were just

a cut-and-dried murder case.

- [Alan] Testifying against them

in exchange for leniency

will be the other two men

who carried out Derwin Brown's murder:

Patrick Cuffy and Paul Skyers.

- Cuffy lost it.

He did terrible under cross-examination.

- He said, "But I didn't do anything.

It was these two that really were the bad guys,

and me and Skyers, yeah, we were there,

and I sort of organized everything,

but they're the bad guys."

We're expecting,

"Guilty, guilty, guilty."

[suspenseful music]

They render a "Not Guilty" verdict,

and all the oxygen is just sucked out of the room.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Dale] I think the jury came to the conclusion

that these two people were being set up.

That other people were truly

responsible for Derwin Brown's murder,

and these two were scapegoats.

[somber dramatic music]

- [Brandy] Hearing that Ramsey and Walker

were acquitted of my father's murder,

[thunder rumbling]

was like a stab in the heart.

Because not only did you all take over a year

to finally get a break in the case,

you can't even close it.

- [J. Tom] It was a kick in the gut.

Derwin's mother had to be

Phyllis was in hysterics.

The Atlanta paper said that:

I'd made a deal with the devil

and the devil was winning.

- [Chris] And we still got to try Sidney Dorsey.

And we thought, "This is going to be

very, very difficult."

[tense dramatic music]

- [Alan] The challenge for the prosecution remains.

The case against Sidney Dorsey depends on the same

distasteful witness as the first trial, Patrick Cuffy.

- [Chris] All it takes is, you know, one or two people to say,

"I'm not buying it."

And if he walks, then we've lost our chance at justice.

- [Brandy] Essentially, the feeling amongst everybody

is like, they just better not [beep] this up.

[pensive dramatic music]

- [J. Tom] July 10, 2002,

the jury came back after three days of deliberation.

Judge Becker, who was our judge in this case,

she always had the prosecutor to read the verdict out loud.

And so I was called to the stand to read the verdict.

[intense suspenseful music]

And I read it in the courtroom.

As I read Count One:

"Murder, Guilty," Phyllis fell out.

[soft gentle music]

- [Chris] Phyllis Brown was sitting right behind me,

and she kind of clutched her throat

and like threw her hand up in the air,

like "Finally, finally."

And, you know, there were sobs,

and people were crying.

- [Alan] Sidney Dorsey is sentenced to life in prison.

[jail bars rattling]

- [Brandy] In my mind, and I'm sure in my mom's mind,

we were grateful that the system worked.

But I think for some of us it still didn't feel like enough,

because you still had people walking around that physically

did this crime, and they're free.

[eerie dramatic music]

- [Alan] Melvin Walker and David Ramsey

have beat the rap in state court.

But because they used their cellphones

to coordinate the killing,

the federal government is able to charge them

with conspiracy to commit a murder-for-hire.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Chris] The FBI and the Department of Justice

determined that they had violated federal laws

regarding use of telecommunication devices.

So they indicted them on federal murder charges,

and they were convicted in federal court,

and they're both serving life in prison.

[gentle dramatic music]

- [Alan] In exchange for flipping on Dorsey,

getaway driver Paul Skyers walks away

with no jail time at all.

Patrick Cuffy, who

gets one year behind bars.

- [Brandy] The deal th

I think that was handled totally wrong.

[gentle dramatic music]

My father was the true leader

when it came to DeKalb County.

His legacy is his family.

We make sure that DeKalb County does not forget the impact

that my father had and his legacy will continue to have.

And that is his legacy.

That is my mom's legacy.

They will never be forgotten in DeKalb County.

I will make sure of that.

[soft dramatic music]

- [Alan] In 2007, seven years after Derwin Brown was murdered,

Dorsey finally admitted that he had given the order.

A grim reminder that while the oath of pu

is sacred to some, to others it's just words.

And the real test of character

is the willingness to put your community first,

especially, when the killer is among you.

[soft ominous music]