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The police have talked to Hood, who has changed her phone and pager numbers several times recently, out of habit, she says, not because she is hiding. She says on that Friday night, Derwin Brown talked to her about handling his press. She says she does not understand why the Browns or others would suggest she knows more than she is telling. "How could I signal the killer? How do you do that? I don't know anything about killers," she says. She says she admired Derwin as well as his wife. And even though Hood was busy with charity work, caring for her sick mother and not active on Derwin's transition team, she says she called him often. "Hey, Coach," she'd say. "It's me. I'm checking in. Tell me what we need to do."
Interim sheriff Tom Brown and others confirm that the investigation is now focusing primarily on the jail's finances. Forensic auditors are examining contracts and other records related to the private companies servicing the jail, which, with 3,750 inmates, is one of the largest east of the Mississippi. Among the most scrutinized are the companies holding contracts to provide health care, maintenance and food service at the jail.
Investigators and auditors are also looking into the blatantly improper arrangements between the sheriff and seven bail-bonding companies that have been allowed to set up shop inside the jail without paying rent. State law prohibits bondsmen from having such access. Investigators are also looking for possible wrongdoing at three of the bonding companies, including one formerly owned by civil rights pioneer Hosea Williams. Apart from not paying rent, the companies may have been allowed by former sheriffs to operate without posting $150,000 cash or property bonds, contrary to jail policy. After being sworn in, Derwin planned to evict the bail bondsmen, which would have had deep financial consequences. A legit bonding company in DeKalb County can generate $40,000 a month. There may have been other ways to boost income. Already, auditors are trying to account for $400,000 in bond forfeitures that are missing, overdue or otherwise not collected. This supposedly was the topic of conversation between Derwin Brown and the county official (clerk of court Jeanette Rozier) when the man in the Ford Expedition was watching them during the runoff election. Other bondsmen in town say they can find no record in the clerk's office of as many as 150 criminal cases in which they hold bonds. The companies are required to file quarterly reports listing the status of all bonded cases. "They were just not there, no docketing, no nothing, no record they ever existed," says the owner of a bonding company not targeted in the investigation. By not being forced to pay the full bonds of defendants who don't appear in court, the companies could benefit by keeping the money.
Then there is Sid Dorsey, the outgoing sheriff. He says he's beginning to feel like a suspect, especially since prosecutors announced that a grand jury will look into allegations that he used on-duty sheriff's deputies to work at his private security business and allowed jail inmates to work at the neighborhood improvement organization of his wife Sherry, an Atlanta councilwoman.