Savannah Police officer fired for relationship with convicted felon
On Sept. 28, 2023, the Savannah Police Department (SPD) terminated a corporal after an internal affairs investigation found that he had a relationship with a convicted felon, according to documents obtained via open records request by the Savannah Morning News.
The internal affairs investigation, launched in August 2023, stemmed from allegations that the former officer, Darryl Repress, was having a relationship with a woman, whom he also was using as a confidential informant.
According to the allegations in the internal probe, Repress sent the woman another detective’s body-worn camera (BWC) footage to get information about the unsolved 2014 murder of “Baby Kiki” Kiaja Smalls. The probe also detailed allegations that Repress provided the woman information about an April 2023 operation in the Waters Avenue corridor that targeted associates of Tyquian Bowman, better known as rapper Quando Rondo, allowing one man to avoid apprehension. During the same period, the probe found that Repress was buying stolen clothes from the woman and buying gifts for her.
"I recommend TERMINATION for Cpl. Darryl Repress Jr knowingly understanding that he was in violation of various departmental policies," wrote SPD Lt. Torrance Garvin in the Letter of Transmittal (LOT). "This is based on Cpl. Repress admitting to all of the allegations brought against him as well as the evidence presented to support such allegations. There is no ability for rehabilitation concerning these violations."
Through the probe, Savannah Police found Repress violated nine internal policies, including six counts of Oath of Office, Ethics, and Conduct; Computer and MDT Use and Access; Body-worn camera (BWC); and City of Savannah Employee Standards.
As previously reported, Chatham County Superior Court Judge Tammy Stokes ruled to seal the IA investigation regarding Repress on Oct. 31 of last year at the request of a Chatham County assistant district attorney who was prosecuting a murder case that Repress had investigated. In early January, those records were unsealed.
One other internal affairs investigation into Repress remains ongoing, according to an email from an SPD Open Records Supervisor.
Repress the subject of nine internal affairs investigations
Repress was hired by the formerly consolidated Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department in June 2013. According to his personnel file, Repress was transferred from the Central Precinct to the Regional Intelligence Center as a gang/group investigator in 2016. According to an SPD public information officer, Repress was part of the department's community response team at the time of the investigation. The community response team was established in Fall 2022 by now-Chief Lenny Gunther "as a specialized unit focused on emerging crime issues and areas of concern within the community."
By the time SPD hired Repress, he had accrued 13 traffic violations in four years in the state of Florida, including operating a vehicle without proof of insurance and obscuring or having no driver’s license, according to his personnel file.
His disciplinary action record shows that Repress was the focus of nine total internal affairs investigations, including the two most recent, during his tenure with SPD.
SPD disciplined Repress at least six times for eight incidents, including two written reprimands, one counseling form, one written counseling, one discussion, and one 40-hour suspension. He was exonerated by police supervisors from one use-of-force incident.
He also missed three court hearings in which he was scheduled to testify, according to internal affairs files.
Among the documents, there was one previous allegation that Repress had associated with criminals, citing an incident from 2020 when Repress was working as a plain-clothes investigator with the Violent Crime Task Force.
On April 27, 2020, at the intersection of West 42nd and Stevens streets, Leevonny Walker shot at Marion Slaughter, hitting a main artery in Slaughter’s leg. When Walker ran from the scene, according to the incident report, Repress yelled, “Police, stop running,” then fired three rounds at Walker, who was not injured. Repress then placed Walker in double-locked handcuffs.
In an interview after the shooting with then-SPD Violent Crimes detective and lead investigator Silver Leuschner, Walker said that Repress was a “hood ni**** from CBV,” or Cuyler-Brownsville. Walker claimed that he had “smoked” with Repress “not even a week ago.” Walker also alleged that Repress shot at him at least 10 to 12 times. Walker was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault against a police officer, according to Leuschner's incident report.
Leuschner was fired in 2021, following the in-custody hanging death of William Harvey.
In an interview with then-SPD Sgt. Eric Smith, Repress denied smoking with Walker, much less meeting him. "He said he has never hung out with him or anybody from Savannah because he is not from here," Smith wrote in the final report.
In a follow-up interview with Smith as part of the investigation, Walker reiterated that he knew Repress.
Then-Lt. of the Strategic Investigations Section, Joseph Toth, found that Repress violated SPD ethics policies and recommended written counseling for not displaying his badge.
According to a review of court transcripts, Walker reached a negotiated plea for tampering with evidence, aggravated assault, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and aggravated assault on a peace officer. Walker was sentenced to 11 years total, including six years in prison and five years’ probation.
Former officer involved in use-of-force investigations
Repress also used force on at least three occasions. Two of those were ruled unjustified, and one was ruled justified by IA investigators.
On April 22, 2017, Repress was working the Orange Crush event on Tybee Island in the area of Island Breeze. He was in uniform and a marked car, according to the IA investigation. A man who was under surveillance fled the scene and Repress grabbed the man “by the shirt and pushed him to the ground” while the man was standing still with his hands in the air, according to then-Lt. Tonya Reid in the disciplinary action report.
In the Letter of Transmittal (LOT), Reid wrote that the use of force was unnecessary.
Repress disagreed, stating that the man was known to flee "from police on sight" and was known to carry guns and drugs.
“Since being assigned to this unit (Strategic Investigations Unit or SIU) and the type of subjects that are targeted they don’t give up,” Repress said according to Reid’s recollection detailed in the LOT.
Reid noted in the LOT that the man’s only violent arrest involved aggravated assault against his girlfriend in 2015, to which the man pled guilty to battery. The man has been charged only once for obstruction by fleeing, Reid added, concluding that Repress violated the department’s use-of-force police. She recommended Repress receive a written reprimand.
In December 2017, a woman filed a complaint against Repress and three other officers, alleging that they broke four of her son’s ribs and bruised his lungs, neck, back, face and head during a traffic stop for an improper tag in the Cuyler-Brownsville neighborhood.
“It appears that my son’s civil rights have been violated by what appears to be improperly trained officers who abused their authority,” said the mother, who noted that she served for more than 30 years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer.
The mother demanded that the officers be suspended and that a “thorough investigation” be conducted. She also sent the letter to the ACLU of Georgia and then-Georgia Sen. Lester Jackson.
But the IA investigator exonerated Repress and the other SPD officers, saying their use-of-force had been justified.
The third use-of-force incident occurred in March 2021 at a house on Harden Street, according to a memo created by created by Kevin Jarriel, then an sergeant with the Major Crimes Division (MCD).
A complainant alleged that items in her home were damaged during the execution of a search warrant and that officers pointed guns at her son. She said that Repress dropped her son on the ground, struck him and called him a racial epithet. She also alleged that officers struck her dog, giving it a swollen eye.
“Everyone in [the] Black community [knows] Officer Repress is [a] CNT undercover cop,” the complainant detailed in the form. “Always act like he is above the law, and act like a thug.”
Jarriel, however, found that Repress did not commit most of the alleged acts during his investigation. He did, however, find during the review of the body cam footage that Repress used inappropriate language toward the son.
According to the LOT written by then-SPD Lt. Robert Larry, Repress denied pointing his weapon at anyone or damaging any property but did admit he should have handled the situation differently. Larry recommended he be suspended for one day. Then-SPD Chief Roy Minter sustained the findings and suspended Repress for 40 hours.
Repress faces possible prosecution
A review of Chatham County court records also revealed that multiple lawsuits have been filed against Repress, some more serious than others.
One, filed in 2017, alleged that because Repress failed to accurately complete an auto theft recovery report, the owners of the car were illegally stopped twice. On June 30, 2017, the case against Repress was dismissed in federal court with prejudice.
Three magistrate court cases from 2018 to 2019 show that Repress defaulted on three credit cards and that he owed about $6,200 plus court costs. One of those cases was dismissed without prejudice. Ultimately, the Chatham County Magistrate Court Judges ruled that Repress owed about $5,000 for the two credit card defaults.
On Oct. 19, 2019, Martita Harris filed a good behavior bond against Repress in Chatham County Magistrate Court. According to the good behavior bond, Repress allegedly "threatened to do bodily harm" to Harris. "The Complainant is afraid for her safety and wants the Defendant to stay away from her (whomever else the Complainant has control over), her residence and her property."
On Nov. 13, 2019, Chatham County Magistrate Court Judge Michael Barker dismissed the case "due to failure to prosecute," though he didn't specify why Chatham County prosecutors failed to do so.
The termination of Repress comes as former Savannah Police detective Ashley Wood appealed her termination from SPD for falsifying information in a search warrant and was reinstated as a code compliance officer with the city.
The termination also come after Chatham County assistant district attorneys allege that homicide prosecutions were falling apart at trial partly because of recurring problems with SPD and law enforcement investigations.
Wood has since come under scrutiny by the DA’s office and may possibly face prosecution, according to DA Shalena Cook Jones, whose office is reviewing five cases involving Wood.
Jones also confirmed that she is also reviewing cases involving Repress.
“Officer Repress is currently being investigated by our office, so I can’t make any comment about the status of that investigation,” said Jones, although she did suggest that potential prosecution of Repress “a more developed case.”
In a Dec. 14, 2023, interview with ADA Brian DeBlasiis, he said that Jones had asked him to pull and review all cases in which Repress assisted with or investigated. That step has been completed, and the ADAs have since made individual assessments for each case.
Citing the ongoing investigation, DeBlasiis declined to provide the number of cases that Repress investigated. However, SMN found that Repress was listed as the main witness on at least 40 indictments bound up to Chatham County Superior Court.
"He was mostly a narcotics officer," said DeBlasiis. "That is still ongoing. They're continuing to make those assessments. Some of them are still active. Some of them have resulted in pleas."
Drew Favakeh is a public safety and courts reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Police officer fired for relationship with convicted felon
