brown wanted to demote or fire 38 people. he fired a lot of people. he was asking for some serious investigations to occur. so there were a lot of people who were concerned and maybe upset about the reforms that were about to take place under his administration. on december 15th, 2000, derwin graduated from the state sheriff s academy. and it was phyllis birthday. in three days, he was scheduled to be sworn in. there would be a double celebration. family and friends joined campaign workers that night at a supper club in decatur. everybody s just laughing, you know, relaxing, having a good time, saying it s finally over. phyllis, you now have your husband back. we were really getting into the festive mood, you know, simply because it was my birthday, the holidays were on their way. it s over.
death benefits. there was an almost seven-day gap where technically he was unemployed as an officer. so the family sued dekalb county for wrongful death. they used county vehicles and county time to assassinate my father. the georgia court of appeals found the county was not liable. because dorsey was acting outside the scope of his employment as sheriff when he had derwin assassinated, the citizens of dekalb county and the state of georgia are not liable for his criminal actions. one month before she died, the u.s. supreme court refused to hear phyllis brown s next appeal. and in a separate legal proceeding, another jury ordered sidney dorsey, patrick cuffy and paul skyers to pay the brown family $776 million in damages, the largest verdict in georgia history. but of course we ve never seen a cent of it. and lawyers freely
with anyone. how dare they. how dare they. dorsey s team tried to blame it all on patrick cuffy. no evidence that sidney dorsey s involved and then telling a murderer, we know you re involved, but you ll walk out of here if you say the name sidney dorsey. the only person who had the motive to kill derwin brown is none other than sidney dorsey, himself. and through it all sat phyllis brown, the final witness. i m sorry. i looked to my left on the ground, and derwin was lying there. then j. tom morgan asked her one final question. did you ever hear from sidney dorsey expressing any condolences? no. after a three-week trial then two days of jury deliberation,
that justice did prevail. so it was emotionally draining. i m glad i had the experience. not many lawyers in their career have an experience like that. and it was rewarding in the sense that at the end, justice did prevail. it was a bumpy road to get there and not a road that i would want to travel again. on december 15th, 2006, an ailing phyllis brown led a candlelight remembrance at derwin s grave. it was the sixth anniversary of the shooting. nine days later, on christmas eve, phyllis brown died of heart failure at the age of 52. coming up this was not the end. the world would hear from former sheriff sid dorsey again.
we were supposed to all leave from the restaurant and go back to my parents house and kind of finish the celebration. we re kind of a partying family. it was my mom s birthday. i was like, i m so proud of you. i told him, i said, i m tired. i will just see you in the morning at breakfast and we ll continue. i don t think i m going back to the house. he said, okay, that s fine. i m going to sit here a while longer. he was talking to someone. and i m headed on home. at about 11:00 p.m., brown drove home alone. he parked at the curb. phyllis was inside watching tv with robert crowder and her son, michael. michael saw derwin walk toward the house carrying roses and some christmas gifts. he saw his dad coming down the driveway toward the door. and he you know, he said he saw him with the bags and his coat. and he said, he just he said, and pops just had this big smile on his face, like he was you know, like, yes!