A Savannah-Chatham police sergeant has surrendered his
weapon under court order after he and his wife, a domestic violence detective,
were involved in two physical altercations in their Pooler home.
It is the third time in four months a metro police
sergeant has been involved in a domestic dispute reported to law enforcement.
Sgt. Laprentice Mayes turned his weapon over to a Chatham
County Sheriff’s deputy Tuesday at the police department’s Internal Affairs
Office, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday. Chatham County Superior Court
Chief Judge Michael Karpf ordered Mayes’ weapons confiscated as part of an
order of protection he signed Tuesday.
The order requires that he stay 500 yards from Detective
Trina Mayes, surrender all keys to their home and avoid any contact with her
and her minor children.
The Savannah-Chatham police department has declined
comment and would not confirm reports from multiple law enforcement sources
that husband and wife both have been placed on administrative leave.
In a written statement that was part of the court
documents, Trina Mayes explained she and her husband had been quarreling for
several days. Pooler police arrived at the house about 10:30 p.m. Monday. They
had agreed to separate, she told officers, and she told him she would pack some
boxes and take them to his mother’s house.
As she was packing, she told officers, Laprentice Mayes
told her to leave his belongings alone. He shoved her, she stated, and, in
reaction, she swung back, striking him in the cheek with a tape dispenser. The
blow bloodied his face, she admitted.
During the dispute, Trina Mayes’ mother called the house.
Hearing the commotion, she told one of the children who answered she was
calling police.
Trina Mayes left briefly, but had to return to get her
debit card, she wrote.
The argument continued, and she stated, “I then told him
that I talked to the chief and was advised to tell him if he hits me and I call
the police he will lose his job.”
Both of them, on separate phones, then began trying to
call their supervising captains, according to Trina Mayes’ statement.
The couple had become violent only three days before,
according to her statement.
That Friday, as she was packing his belongings, he poked
her in the eye, she wrote. She pushed him in the face. He shoved her into a
bathroom counter, pushing her head into the mirror.
She grabbed a curling iron and struck him repeatedly
trying to get him off, she wrote.
Pooler police also responded to a domestic dispute at the
home in 2010. That call concerned an allegation of shoving, which Laprentice
Mayes denied.
He has been with Savannah-Chatham police since 1996. In
2006, the Savannah Area Exchange Club honored him as the department’s
investigator of the year. He is still an investigator in robbery.
In May, Trina Mayes distinguished herself during the
kidnapping and standoff at the Olde Pink House Restaurant. As the kidnap victim
leapt from his car, she fired a shot at his assailant and began foot pursuit.
She alerted other officers by radio as she ran.
On Monday, City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney upheld the
termination of Sgt. Gregory Capers. Chief Willie Lovett recommended termination
because of a violation of policy that occurred while Capers was on leave
following a June 22 domestic battery report.
In June, former Sgt. Allan Clairmont accepted a four-year
probated sentence on a bigamy charge. He was fired March 29, two days after his
arrest in Port Wentworth following a report of false imprisonment and domestic
violence battery.
Courts reporter Jan Skutch contributed to this article.