SAVANNAH ― Mayor Van Johnson on Tuesday accused Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones of prioritizing her reelection bid over seeking justice following Jones’ recent dismissals of five murder cases.
Johnson made the comments in his first public appearance since Jones labeled the cases “compromised” because they were investigated by fired Savannah police officers accused of lying. She announced the dismissals last Thursday, when Johnson was in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention.
“She needs to put justice over politics,” Johnson said during his weekly press briefing. “It’s election season. That’s what this is about.”
Both Johnson and Jones are Democrats.
The mayor repeated his charge that the district attorney’s actions were politically motivated in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution following the press briefing. Jones is nearing the end of her first term and will face one of her former assistant district attorneys, Republican Andre Pretorius, in the November election.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC
According to the mayor, Jones did not contact city officials or the Savannah Police Department to discuss the cases before the dismissals. Reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, Jones refuted that statement, citing a text sent to a Savannah Police Department official about the dismissals on July 25 and a confirmation text from police to her office on Aug. 22.
Jones said she has been in regular communication with the police about the cases for more than a year, dating to when her office began reviewing investigations conducted by Detective Ashley Wood and Cpl. Darryl Repress.
“We told them last summer there were big cases that might need to be dismissed,” Jones said. “They very well knew that when the review was complete, dismissals were likely coming. It wasn’t a secret.
“The mayor would love to blame me, but those were not decisions we reached on our own.”
In Tuesday’s media briefing, Johnson questioned whether the involvement of the two former police officers in the five cases warranted dismissals, particularly given the nature of the crimes. One or both of the officers were assigned to each of the cases, but they were not the only investigators involved.
Johnson challenged the notion that there wasn’t enough evidence in the cases to continue prosecution without the work done by Wood and Repress. The district attorney told reporters last week the defendants in the dismissed cases are unlikely to face new charges barring the emergence of new evidence.
“The reality is this: the case is the case, evidence is evidence and witnesses are witnesses,” Johnson said. “One detective does not a case make. These cases could be recharged.”
Jones disagreed.
“He’s not a lawyer so he doesn’t know what cases can be recharged,” Jone said. “Even if he were, it’s not his job.”
What remains unknown is whether the violations that led to the firings and indictments of the police officers relate directly to the dismissed cases. Wood was fired a year ago after being accused of using false information to obtain search warrants. She was later reinstated by a civil service review board but demoted to a role in another city department outside of the Savannah Police. She has since left that job and no longer a city employee.
A murder case dismissed earlier this summer, the 2021 killing of Charles Vinson, did involve Woods’ alleged misconduct. An internal affairs investigation determined Wood had falsified information to secure search warrants in the case.
The department fired Repress last fall following allegations he lied about a romantic relationship with an informant who was a convicted felon.
Credit: Savannah Police Department
Credit: Savannah Police Department
The mayor is not the only Savannah elected official to express dissatisfaction with the district attorney. Alderman Detric Leggett, who first won election in 2019 after gaining notoriety as an anti-gun violence activist, lashed out at Jones on the day the dismissals were announced.
“We send the police department out to do a job, gather information, and it’s up to the DA’s office to finish the job and make sure that we bring people to justice,” Leggett said. “My confidence in the ability of the DA’s office at this point isn’t there. I know we can do better.”
This story has been updated to reflect that communications between the district attorney’s office and a Savannah Police Department official about the plan to dismiss the murder cases were via text messages.
