Torpy: DeKalb’s seamy underbelly exposed

Jurors in the corruption trial of Burrell Ellis get to choose between two versions of the suspended DeKalb County CEO.

One, the version prosecutors are selling, is a venal shakedown artist, who illegally bullied county contractors into helping finance his 2012 re-election bid. The other, hardly more appealing, is equal parts grandiosity and tantrum-provoking insecurities.

And how do we know this? Largely because an Ellis lieutenant, the county’s former procurement honcho, got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and, to save himself, turned snitch.