ERinger
12-25-2006, 09:31 AM
but at least she's been reunited with Derwin.
Phyllis Brown, widow of slain sheriff-elect, dies at 52
By SAEED AHMED, MARY MACDONALD
Published on: 12/24/06
Phyllis Brown, the widow of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, died Christmas Eve. She was 52.
Brown died about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the DeKalb Medical Center. Brown died of heart failure, following respiratory distress, said her daughter, Brandy Rhodes, who had cared for her mother after a debilitating stroke.
She had fallen ill on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and was taken to DeKalb Medical Center by ambulance, Rhodes said.
At the time of her death, her children were at the hospital, her daughter said.
Brown's husband was gunned down in the driveway of their home on Dec. 15, 2000 — her 46th birthday and three days before he was to have been sworn into office. Then-Sheriff Sidney Dorsey was convicted of masterminding his rival's assassination. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Two co-conspirators, Melvin Walker and David Ramsey, were acquitted in state court of charges related to the killing. They were later convicted in federal court of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and sentenced to life in prison.
Eight months after Dorsey's conviction, Phyllis Brown suffered a major stroke in March 2003. Though she could barely speak, she testified at Walker and Ramsey's federal trial.
She then filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, Dorsey, and his co-conspirators, but the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the claims against the county in 2003.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the Georgia Court of Appeals ruling.
After the stroke, Brown — who last worked in 2000 as an editor for the weekly newspaper The Champion — could not care for herself or get a job. She began living with her daughter Brandy Rhodes, who bathed and dressed her.
Rhodes served as an interpreter for her mother during a June 2003 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that consisted only of yes-no questions.
"She is frustrated at the world because she cannot get across what she wants to say," Rhodes said at the time.
Family friend Geraldine Champion said the last time she saw Brown was at a candlelight vigil on Dec. 15 at the gravesite of Brown's husband. She looked feeble, said Champion, who would have served as Derwin Brown's chief jailer had the sheriff-elect not been assassinated.
"It's three things that hit her," Champion said of Phyllis Brown. "First, she witnessed her own husband getting killed in the driveway of her home. Then she suffered this big stroke. Then the Supreme Court denied her case against DeKalb County [holding it liable for her husband's murder]. How much more can a body take?"
In addition to her daughter, Brown is survived by her mother, Bertha Oliver, 89, of Stone Mountain, stepson Marlon Robinson of Stone Mountain, sons Maurice Douglas, of Lithonia, Robert Brown, of Decatur, and Michael Brown of Stone Mountain, and eight grand-children.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete, but will be handled by Donald Trimble Mortuary in Decatur.
Phyllis Brown, widow of slain sheriff-elect, dies at 52
By SAEED AHMED, MARY MACDONALD
Published on: 12/24/06
Phyllis Brown, the widow of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, died Christmas Eve. She was 52.
Brown died about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the DeKalb Medical Center. Brown died of heart failure, following respiratory distress, said her daughter, Brandy Rhodes, who had cared for her mother after a debilitating stroke.
She had fallen ill on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and was taken to DeKalb Medical Center by ambulance, Rhodes said.
At the time of her death, her children were at the hospital, her daughter said.
Brown's husband was gunned down in the driveway of their home on Dec. 15, 2000 — her 46th birthday and three days before he was to have been sworn into office. Then-Sheriff Sidney Dorsey was convicted of masterminding his rival's assassination. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Two co-conspirators, Melvin Walker and David Ramsey, were acquitted in state court of charges related to the killing. They were later convicted in federal court of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and sentenced to life in prison.
Eight months after Dorsey's conviction, Phyllis Brown suffered a major stroke in March 2003. Though she could barely speak, she testified at Walker and Ramsey's federal trial.
She then filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, Dorsey, and his co-conspirators, but the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the claims against the county in 2003.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the Georgia Court of Appeals ruling.
After the stroke, Brown — who last worked in 2000 as an editor for the weekly newspaper The Champion — could not care for herself or get a job. She began living with her daughter Brandy Rhodes, who bathed and dressed her.
Rhodes served as an interpreter for her mother during a June 2003 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that consisted only of yes-no questions.
"She is frustrated at the world because she cannot get across what she wants to say," Rhodes said at the time.
Family friend Geraldine Champion said the last time she saw Brown was at a candlelight vigil on Dec. 15 at the gravesite of Brown's husband. She looked feeble, said Champion, who would have served as Derwin Brown's chief jailer had the sheriff-elect not been assassinated.
"It's three things that hit her," Champion said of Phyllis Brown. "First, she witnessed her own husband getting killed in the driveway of her home. Then she suffered this big stroke. Then the Supreme Court denied her case against DeKalb County [holding it liable for her husband's murder]. How much more can a body take?"
In addition to her daughter, Brown is survived by her mother, Bertha Oliver, 89, of Stone Mountain, stepson Marlon Robinson of Stone Mountain, sons Maurice Douglas, of Lithonia, Robert Brown, of Decatur, and Michael Brown of Stone Mountain, and eight grand-children.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete, but will be handled by Donald Trimble Mortuary in Decatur.