Editor’s note: A previous version of the story included the posted internal affairs summary with a name left un-redacted. This error was fixed at 10:23 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2024.
Savannah Police Department brass fired a detective last fall after an investigation into an improper relationship he had with an off-the-books police informant, according to internal investigation documents.
The previously unreported documents, obtained by a Georgia Open Records request this week, on the termination of Cpl. Darryl Repress, marks the second time a Savannah detective was fired over ethical concerns last year. Over the summer, former homicide detective Ashley Wood was terminated after an internal investigation found she made false statements when obtaining warrants in a murder investigation.
Issues of truthfulness and misconduct from former detectives Repress and Wood are impacting several criminal cases in the courts, public court filings and interviews show. One Savannah criminal defense lawyer claims the impacts are being felt in a 2015 triple homicide case where the lawyer’s client is accused of murder.
“The prosecution is facing difficulties related to Detective Repress’ involvement in the case,” according to Jonah Pine, the attorney representing one of the three defendants in the case, Jerrell Williams.
“The investigation is pending,” Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones said, in a text message. “No comment.” Repress’ conduct originally came up in the case in October 2023, when Superior Court Judge Tammy Stokes ordered his personnel files sealed from public view.
The fallout from Wood’s termination, however, has been more substantial: Cook Jones told The Savannah Morning News in December 2023 that she is reviewing several felony cases that Wood worked on and wouldn’t take prosecuting Wood off the table.
In December 2023, Wood was reinstated and demoted by an independent civil service board, despite objections from the police and city. Her lawyer said she was overworked and undertrained. It’s not clear if Repress is appealing his termination.
“SPD has been in contact with the DA’s Office, and the department is being kept informed of any court proceedings. SPD holds all employees to a high standard of ethical behavior and anyone found to not meet those standards can be subject to discipline up to and including termination,” the agency said in a statement.
Informant or ‘friendship’?
Repress joined the department as a patrol officer in 2013. He rose through the ranks, eventually working Major Crimes Division cases, which include murders, rapes and shootings. He often worked undercover and made a name for himself by cultivating relationships in the community for information to catch criminals.
But those relationships ultimately led to his termination, according to internal affairs documents.
In June 2023, a Savannah woman complained to the department because she believed Repress interceded in a criminal case on behalf of his non-official informant, according to interviews.
This complaint also included accusations that Repress bought shoplifted clothes from the informant and other women, sent body camera footage to his informant and allegedly tipped off associates of Savannah rapper Quando Rondo of an impending arrest. Repress denied only the last accusation.
Further investigation by internal investigator Sgt. Megan Nelson found that Repress was recorded on Facebook Live speaking to his informant on speaker phone. He said he was going to “get warrants out” on friends of his informant who were calling Repress out publicly.
Over the course of two interviews with investigators, Repress gave conflicting answers to their questions. They honed in on the fact he texted his informant body camera footage from an unrelated murder case, which Repress said he didn’t remember doing.
“On that video, somebody’s on there, (body-worn camera footage) you’re recording it. So you had to intentionally ask somebody to pull that video up,” Lt. Richard Wiggins, head of internal affairs, said to Repress on Aug. 22, 2023. “There has to be a reason and I don’t buy that you don’t remember.”
He maintained that he didn’t remember sending that video. But he confirmed that the number sending the video was his phone number.
In the first interview with investigators, Repress called his relationship with his non-official informant a “friendship” but then said they weren’t friends by the second interview. He had deleted her number out of his phone. “I wanted to disconnect myself from all that” after the Facebook Live, he said.
Repress later admitted he bought the informant a gift for her baby shower and paid $125 out of pocket for information in criminal cases.
Repress said he couldn’t make his informant an official Confidential Informant, or “CI,” which would include department funds and legal protections, due to the signup process to bring her on.
“In the past, it is difficult to pull information out of people like this and not be able to help them more,” he said.
The detective also misled investigators about buying shoplifted clothes from his informant and other women. He first denied that he did then said he only purchased clothes for his kids during his first divorce, a hard financial time. He knew the clothes were shoplifted and purchased the items while in uniform, according to interviews.
“I did those things. I know it may look bad,” Repress said. “But I’m not out here planting drugs on people, not violating people’s rights.”
“Like I said all these girls used to be friends at one point. And at some point they gave me tons of information and references to individuals to put them in jail,” he said. “I got caught up in the mix of that, knowing who they are.”
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