06-03-2008, 01:56 AM
This is an article from the NY Times. I just happen to catch a show on this on MSNBC Saturday night, it was called "who shot the sheriff" and was based on the murder of Derwin Brown, the soon to be sheriff of dekalb county back in 2000.
Sheriff's Aides Said to Have Cut Deal in Killing
By KEVIN SACK
Published: December 7, 2001
Prosecutors cut a deal last week with two men involved in the assassination of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown of DeKalb County in order to procure evidence needed to charge former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey with the Dec. 15 killing, an investigator testified today.
Appearing at a bond hearing for one of the three men charged last week in the killing, Chris Harvey, a homicide investigator for the DeKalb district attorney, confirmed publicly for the first time that prosecutors had received critical information last Thursday from Patrick Cuffy, a former deputy under Mr. Dorsey, and Paul Skyers, a former employee of Mr. Dorsey's private security firm. The two men said they had been on the scene when Mr. Brown was hit in his driveway with 11 shots from a semiautomatic weapon, Mr. Harvey said.
He also said they ''admitted their role'' in the shooting, though he did not give specifics.
Mr. Harvey did not give details of the prosecution's arrangement with Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers. But they are widely thought by defense lawyers to have been granted immunity in exchange for their information and willingness to testify against Mr. Dorsey and his co-defendants, David Isaiah Ramsey Jr. and Melvin D. Walker.
Mr. Cuffy also had murder and kidnapping charges dropped in a separate, drug-related shooting incident in front of his house last March.
Lawyers for Mr. Dorsey and his co-defendants maintained that prosecutors had been deceived by Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers, who they said had significant incentive to lie.
While Mr. Harvey did not spell out the precise roles played by each defendant, Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Walker apparently were present outside Mr. Brown's suburban Atlanta house along with Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers. Mr. Dorsey is thought to have ordered the killing as political revenge after Mr. Brown charged him with corruption and then defeated him in an election in the summer of 2000.
Mr. Brown was three days from taking office when he was killed. He had already vowed to conduct an investigative audit of the sheriff's department, which oversees DeKalb's jail, and to fire dozens of Dorsey allies, including Mr. Cuffy.
Mr. Ramsey, a native of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and a childhood friend of Mr. Cuffy, was not the gunman, Mr. Harvey said. But he testified that Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers said that Mr. Ramsey carried a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the night of the killing, and that he dropped it and had to return to the Brown house to retrieve it.
After the hearing, a judge denied Mr. Ramsey's request to be freed on bond. Mr. Dorsey is scheduled for a bond hearing on Tuesday, and Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers may be called to testify.
Mr. Harvey said Mr. Skyers directed law enforcement officers last week to the gun that is suspected to be the murder weapon.
''Pieces of a weapon were found based on that interview,'' Mr. Harvey said. The gun, a Tec 9, is undergoing ballistics tests.
If anybody works the BCC South detail, be aware Skyers is the Sergeant employed by campus safety.. He destroyed the gun used in the murder and drove the getaway vehicle. He should be in federal prison but b/c he ratted on his partners this cop killer is working right next to us..
bcc page..
http://www.broward.edu/ext/FacultyDisplay.jsp?Name=PSKYERS
Sheriff's Aides Said to Have Cut Deal in Killing
By KEVIN SACK
Published: December 7, 2001
Prosecutors cut a deal last week with two men involved in the assassination of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown of DeKalb County in order to procure evidence needed to charge former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey with the Dec. 15 killing, an investigator testified today.
Appearing at a bond hearing for one of the three men charged last week in the killing, Chris Harvey, a homicide investigator for the DeKalb district attorney, confirmed publicly for the first time that prosecutors had received critical information last Thursday from Patrick Cuffy, a former deputy under Mr. Dorsey, and Paul Skyers, a former employee of Mr. Dorsey's private security firm. The two men said they had been on the scene when Mr. Brown was hit in his driveway with 11 shots from a semiautomatic weapon, Mr. Harvey said.
He also said they ''admitted their role'' in the shooting, though he did not give specifics.
Mr. Harvey did not give details of the prosecution's arrangement with Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers. But they are widely thought by defense lawyers to have been granted immunity in exchange for their information and willingness to testify against Mr. Dorsey and his co-defendants, David Isaiah Ramsey Jr. and Melvin D. Walker.
Mr. Cuffy also had murder and kidnapping charges dropped in a separate, drug-related shooting incident in front of his house last March.
Lawyers for Mr. Dorsey and his co-defendants maintained that prosecutors had been deceived by Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers, who they said had significant incentive to lie.
While Mr. Harvey did not spell out the precise roles played by each defendant, Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Walker apparently were present outside Mr. Brown's suburban Atlanta house along with Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers. Mr. Dorsey is thought to have ordered the killing as political revenge after Mr. Brown charged him with corruption and then defeated him in an election in the summer of 2000.
Mr. Brown was three days from taking office when he was killed. He had already vowed to conduct an investigative audit of the sheriff's department, which oversees DeKalb's jail, and to fire dozens of Dorsey allies, including Mr. Cuffy.
Mr. Ramsey, a native of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and a childhood friend of Mr. Cuffy, was not the gunman, Mr. Harvey said. But he testified that Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers said that Mr. Ramsey carried a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the night of the killing, and that he dropped it and had to return to the Brown house to retrieve it.
After the hearing, a judge denied Mr. Ramsey's request to be freed on bond. Mr. Dorsey is scheduled for a bond hearing on Tuesday, and Mr. Cuffy and Mr. Skyers may be called to testify.
Mr. Harvey said Mr. Skyers directed law enforcement officers last week to the gun that is suspected to be the murder weapon.
''Pieces of a weapon were found based on that interview,'' Mr. Harvey said. The gun, a Tec 9, is undergoing ballistics tests.
If anybody works the BCC South detail, be aware Skyers is the Sergeant employed by campus safety.. He destroyed the gun used in the murder and drove the getaway vehicle. He should be in federal prison but b/c he ratted on his partners this cop killer is working right next to us..
bcc page..
http://www.broward.edu/ext/FacultyDisplay.jsp?Name=PSKYERS