Former deputy testifies in Dorsey's trial

ALBANY - Former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey wanted his successor strangled, but the men who carried out the murder shot him instead to avoid a struggle, the star prosecution witness against Dorsey testified Tuesday. <br> <br> Patrick Cuffy, who was a DeKalb County jailer under Dorsey, has admitted being part of the plot to kill Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, who was shot to death in December 2000. He was given immunity by prosecutors in exchange for his testimony. <br> <br> Dorsey is accused of masterminding the slaying of Brown, who had beaten him in a bitter runoff election by promising to clean up decades of corruption at the sheriff&#39;s department. <br> <br> Cuffy testified Tuesday that Dorsey had ordered murder by strangulation. <br> <br> He says, ``He figured ... there would be no trace of any weapon. It was not convenient for us. We had decided we didn&#39;t want to wrestle with anyone.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Earlier in the day, Cuffy held back tears and avoided eye contact with Dorsey as he described how he had once looked to the former sheriff as a father figure. <br> <br> During afternoon testimony, Cuffy said that Dorsey asked him on about three occasions to work as a security guard at banks that had contracts with the sheriff&#39;s private security firm. <br> <br> Each time, Cuffy said, he worked in his sheriff&#39;s department uniform and drove a department car to the locations and was paid by the sheriff&#39;s department. <br> <br> He said Dorsey&#39;s rationale for killing Derwin Brown was because Dorsey knew he could not beat him with a write-in ballot, but if Brown were killed, there would be a special election and he could be elected. <br> <br> The night of the killing, Cuffy says he heard shots and asumed that Melvin Walker was carrying out his assignment as the desigated triggerman. <br> <br> Prosecutors are trying to prove both that Dorsey plotted the murder and that he presided over widespread corruption in the sheriff&#39;s department corruption that Brown had promised to clean up. <br> <br> A separate jury has acquitted two other men, David Ramsey and Melvin Walker, who were accused of carrying out the slaying. <br> <br> The Dorsey trial was moved to Albany in south Georgia because of heavy publicity in metro Atlanta. <br> <br> Also Tuesday, a man who described himself as a friend of Dorsey said the former sheriff had told him after the runoff that Brown would never be inaugurated as sheriff.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193167