Derwin Brown

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Derwin Brown (June 22, 1954 -December 15, 2000) was a police captain and the sheriff-elect of DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, who was assassinated on the evening of December 15, 2000.

Brown was a 23-year veteran of the DeKalb County Police Department when he was elected to the position of sheriff on a platform of cleaning up the corruption and graft that had historically troubled the DeKalb County Police Department. Brown was shot in front of his home fifteen times with a Tec-9 handgun and died on the scene. Defeated incumbent, former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, was convicted of ordering Brown's assassination. Details that came to light in the trial suggested that Dorsey ordered the killing in order to obstruct an expected probe into corruption occurring during his own tenure as sheriff.

The law firm of Casey Gilson Leibel P.C. filed suit on behalf of the Brown family against those involved in the killing. At trial, the family's attorneys, Steve Leibel and George Schingler, showed the jury how Dorsey and his deputies conspired to assassinate Brown. Casey Gilson's efforts resulted in a jury verdict of more than 750 million dollars in favor of the Brown family. Although the family has thus far been unable to collect any of those monies, the jury verdict was the largest in Georgia history.

The defense attorneys declined to actually appear on behalf of the defendants at trial; instead, having filed an interlocutory appeal on the issue of liability, they allowed the damages portion of the trial to go forward undefended. Their confidence was well-placed. The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in Defendant's favor on the issue of whether the State was immune from suit. Plaintiff appealed the ruling up to the Georgia Supreme Court, and that Court upheld the ruling. The United States Supreme Court denied cert on a subsequent appeal filed by Derwin Brown's family.

After the verdict was rendered virtually uncollectable by the series of failed appeals, a bill was introduced into the Georgia House of Representatives seeking to compensate Derwin Brown's family in an amount in excess of $300 million. The bill failed to obtain the necessary votes for passage.

On July 13, 2007, Dorsey confessed to investigators that he had ordered Deputy Patrick Cuffy to carry out the killing at Brown's home on December 15, 2000. However, he claimed that he had called the attempt off prior to Brown's assassination.

Brown was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.