Sheriff's Murder Called Professional

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) â€” The murder of sheriff-elect Derwin Brown was a ``professional hit'' that may have been prompted by his plans to overhaul the sheriff's department, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Brown, 46, was gunned down Friday when he arrived home from a party celebrating his graduation from a sheriff's training academy, police said.

Brown was to take office Jan. 1 and had promised clean up corruption in the department. He had already told 38 employees they would be fired, police said.

DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, speaking on ``The Early Show'' on CBS, called the slaying ``a professional hit with sheriff-elect Brown being shot numerous times in his front yard.''

Morgan said the investigation was focused on people who were unhappy with Brown's plans to change the department.

``He ruffled a lot of feathers. He made a lot of people mad with the changes he was going to make,'' Morgan said.

Brown defeated incumbent Sheriff Sidney Dorsey in an acrimonious summer election. Dorsey was accused of using on-duty deputies to work for his private security company and letting jail inmates work in a home repair program run by his wife.

Dorsey has maintained he did nothing wrong.

DeKalb officials planned to name an interim sheriff on Friday to serve until an election in March. At least 15 people have applied.