DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Monday night marked 25 years since the assassination of DeKalb County Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown, a murder that shocked Georgia and the nation days before Christmas.
The rival he defeated, former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, had him killed.
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The cold-blooded assassination on Dec. 15, 2000, forever changed the Brown family. It also changed the lives of former Channel 2 Action News reporter Dale Cardwell and his family.
Before Brown’s murder, Cardwell spent months exposing then-Sheriff Dorsey’s corruption within the office.
“I prayed about it and I say, God, if you have me to do this and this is your will for my life, please, please protect my family,” Cardwell recalled.
Cardwell said his investigation started with a strange encounter.
“After a live shot at 6 o’clock, my photographer Jim Bridges and I went to Dairy Queen to get a soft serve,” he said. “I’m standing there in line and this guy comes and pokes me on the shoulder. I turn around and he says, ‘You’re Dale Cardwell with Channel 2.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘I’ve got the biggest story that’s ever been told, but no one has the guts to tell it.’ And I said, ‘Well, try me.’
Dale said that conversation turned into an investigation that would end the career of a man some considered untouchable.
“First Amendment investigative journalism is what keeps this country going, because without that, we would have no way to expose corruption. And Dale Cardwell and WSB is a perfect example about how important that is,” former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said.
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Cardwell says for his first story, he caught DeKalb County Sheriff Sgt. Joe Murray working private security for Dorsey at a bank while being paid by taxpayers.
“Can I ask you a question?” Cardwell asked Murray. “Are you on the clock? Are you on the county clock right now?
“That’s not your business,” Murray replied while shaking his head.
“To Sgt. Murray’s defense, he had no idea that he was providing security for a private security firm,” Morgan said.
Cardwell says the report opened a floodgate of tips about Dorsey.
“My phone started ringing off the hook, with sources inside the sheriff’s department, inside county government,” he said.
Fred Mays, then with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, says the Channel 2 investigation led to an official investigation into things like the shocking amount of overtime claimed by one of Dorsey’s deputies, Patrick Cuffy.
“We determined it’s not humanly possible for him to work that many hours,” Mays said.
Dorsey blasted the media after his loss to Brown.
“I think it was very unfair and very slanted and very biased reporting,” he said in 2000.
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The night Derwin Brown was gunned down, Cardwell says police showed up at his house.
“They said Mr. Cardwell, the sheriff-elect of Dekalb County Derwin Brown was murdered in his driveway within the hour ... we fully expected to find you dead as well.”
Cardwell said police put him and his family under protection for weeks, and he feared for his safety. In April 2001, he was getting ready for a live shot when a bullet whizzed by his head.
He couldn’t help but think of his ongoing coverage of Dorsey and his co-conspirators, but the shooter was never found.
Cardwell said his family has been scarred forever.
“My daughter has PTSD from it. She, to this day, you know, she thinks someone’s out to get my dad,” he said.
Watch “The Hit: The Assassination of Derwin Brown” special report
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