Where is Sidney Dorsey now? Details explored ahead of American Monster: Abuse of Power on ID

Sidney Dorsey headlines the newest chapter of American Monster: Abuse of Power, I Am the Law, airing on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at 10 pm ET on Investigation Discovery. The hour-long installment revisits the former DeKalb County sheriff’s slide from respected lawman to convicted mastermind of political murder.

Viewers will see archival campaign footage, police interviews, and new commentary that retrace Dorsey’s dizzying rise in Atlanta law enforcement, his bitter 2000 election defeat, and the deadly decision that followed. The network repeats the program at 1 am ET on Monday, with additional slots later in the week.

Sidney Dorsey, 85, is serving his life-without-parole term at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, GA, according to an Oxygen True Crime report published July 30, 2018. American Monster: Abuse of Power on ID will be spotlighting a case where the badge itself turned into a weapon.

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Dorsey’s journey from sheriff to plotter

Sidney Dorsey spent three decades as an Atlanta homicide detective before voters made him DeKalb County’s first Black sheriff in 1996. Four years later, he lost a hard-fought runoff to Captain Derwin Brown, who promised an internal corruption probe.

Fearing exposure, Dorsey ordered Brown’s murder for hire. Brown was gunned down in his driveway on December 15, 2000, three days before taking office. As per a Fox News report dated August 3, 2005, Brown’s wife called a 911 dispatcher.

“If Sidney did something to my husband, I’m going to kill him,” Brown’s wife said.

Prosecutors painted a picture of bribes, jobs-for-cash, and payoffs that primed deputies to do their boss’s bidding, and the jury agreed. On July 10, 2002, Dorsey was convicted of malice murder, racketeering, theft, and oath violations, earning life without parole plus 23 years.

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“I was out of my mind”— A prison confession

For five years, Sidney Dorsey denied every allegation. Then, in 2007, he summoned District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming to Georgia State Prison and finally admitted his role.

“I was crazy. I was out of my mind. I want to move on with my life. Forget that,” Fleming quoted him telling a henchman, as per an Associated Press report dated August 16, 2007.

The confession offered little closure to the Brown family. Brown's daughter, Brandy Brown-Rhodes, called it “a joke,” insisting Dorsey still hid key details. Court appeals failed; the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2005, and federal petitions went nowhere.

The civil aftermath proved just as wrenching: a jury awarded Brown’s relatives hundreds of millions in damages, which remain largely uncollected as per Dorsey v. State case laws cited in Justia US laws.

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Where is Sidney Dorsey now?

Today, Sidney Dorsey, 85, serves his life-without-parole term at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, GA. FOX 5 Atlanta confirmed in a December 15, 2023, segment that Dorsey is still in prison for the crime. As per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report dated July 31, 2018, Brown’s widow once faced him in court.

“You called him the lowest scumbag on Earth…That is you,” she said.

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What American Monster will show

The episode pieces together:

• Dorsey’s anticorruption campaign rhetoric versus his pay-to-play reality
• Testimony from deputies promised promotions to pull the trigger
• The 2007 confession audio and family reactions
• Fresh reflections from Brown’s children and current DeKalb officials on trust in policing

Catch American Monster: Abuse of Power - I Am the Law on Investigation Discovery on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at 10 pm ET, with an encore on Monday at 1 am. Episodes stream the next day on the ID GO app and Discovery+.

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Stay tuned for more updates.

Edited by Meenakshi Ajith