Andre, Dorothy

Tenure Summary

Dorothy Andre has worked at Phillips State Prison since 2015, beginning as a corrections officer and moving through CSM Correctional Officer 2, sergeant, lieutenant, and unit manager roles before being appointed Deputy Warden of Security on January 16, 2026. GPS records attribute five deaths to her facility leadership tenure at Phillips State Prison, all recorded between February 9 and July 13, 2026. No lawsuits naming Andre as a defendant are listed in the structured records. Separately, Georgia DOAS risk-management settlement ledgers show three Phillips State Prison liability payouts during Andre’s earlier years as a sergeant: $700,000 tied to Demitri Carter in 2017, $2,500 tied to Terry Allen in 2018, and $5,000 tied to Steven A. Whitt in 2019. Those ledgers do not identify Andre as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Phillips State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (January 16, 2026–present)

GPS records attribute five deaths at Phillips State Prison to Andre’s deputy warden tenure:

• Rodger Scales, 40, recorded February 9, 2026. Gwinnett County Medical Examiner case 26G-0252 lists the manner of death as natural, according to the Gwinnett coroner/GBI Medical Examiner production.
• Cornelius Burge, 42, recorded February 11, 2026. The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner case 26G-0270 lists probable cardiac dysrhythmia due to concentric left ventricular hypertrophy, with manner natural. The examiner noted a history of schizoaffective disorder and stated there was no evidence that non-natural factors played a role. GPS records note the February 11 date is a found date, not necessarily the observed time of death.
• Rickie Lynn Rutherford, 41, recorded April 18, 2026. GPS records list no additional cause notes.
• Richard L. Thatcher, 58, recorded May 3, 2026. GPS records list no additional cause notes.
• Jacob Ray Nicholson, 29, recorded July 13, 2026. GPS records list no additional cause notes.

Broader Phillips State Prison context predates Andre’s deputy warden tenure. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, officers allegedly arranged for Quafabian Melik McBride to be brought to the lockdown unit on the day he was killed in a gang-related stabbing in September 2022; a DOJ investigation summarized in GPS records found that killing triggered a multi-prison gang war with 20 prisoners hospitalized. The AJC also reported that Dave Stone was allegedly assaulted in a mental health ward in 2021. Andre worked at Phillips as a correctional lieutenant during both of those years.

Sources

• GPS personnel and death records
• Gwinnett County Medical Examiner records, cases 26G-0252 and 26G-0270, obtained by open records request
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicide reporting
• GA Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained by open records request
• DOJ investigation findings as summarized in GPS records

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 6, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.