Command staff within the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, along with high ranking officials in the Savannah Police Department, halted the arrest of a woman with an outstanding arrest warrant after her daughter, a CCSO deputy, showed up on scene. They made calls on her behalf, called other high ranking officials, a judge, and courthouse staff, ultimately deciding to transport her to the courthouse so she could resolve the matter in person.
Yolandra Ralene Ship encountered officers following a vehicle accident on private property in the city limits of Savannah. Her license flagged for an outstanding warrant, prompting Savannah Police Officers to indicate she would be arrested. When notified, Ship indicated she would make some calls, which resulted in Deputy Janean Strobert, identified as Ship’s daughter, showing up on scene and contacting command staff with the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office to stop the arrest of her mother. The intervention of the command staff at CCSO extended the encounter with Ship to nearly an hour and a half and culminated with her release for their non-custodial transport to the courthouse in an unmarked vehicle.
The name may sound familiar to TGV readers as Strobert’s work history was published when she was terminated as an investigator with the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office and quickly hired by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. Strobert had been investigated for double dipping on time while working for both the DA’s office and Savannah PD. Her POST certification was also under review at the time of her hiring. Read the story here.
Strobert’s uncle is also employed by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
Primer on How Warrants Work
If a warrant is active, a law enforcement officer (or dispatch) will contact the agency where the warrant is active and ask if they want the person transported for arrest.
A warrant for Failure to Appear to based on a person’s failure to appear in court on other traffic violations or pending criminal charges. While an arresting officer does have discretion, arrests for Failure to Appear are quite common because they are a result of a court order from a judge.
It is almost unheard of for multiple law enforcement officers and supervisors to respond to a scene, to make calls from a traffic stop/arrest location to courthouse staff, and make arrangements for resolution to avoid arrest.
June 25 Incident
According to the incident report, Ship was involved in a parking lot crash in which a Community Service Specialist responded to take a report. Savannah PD Officer D. Rubio was then dispatched because Ship, who was involved in the accident, had an outstanding warrant for Failure to Appear.
The entire incident was captured on body camera and obtained by TheGeorgiaVirtue under the Georgia Open Records Act.
NOTE: Body camera clips were not clipped or edited by TGV other than to add a watermark.
VIDEO
The body camera video is that of Officer Rubio and begins with him talking with the Community Service Specialist about the accident on private property. She tells him that Ship was flagged for an outstanding and active warrant.
1:30 – Rubio tells Ship she has a warrant. He asks for her license so he can check again to be sure. She tells him she’s been told about that before but they “can’t ever find it.” She tells him the warrant is out of North Carolina, but Rubio tells her the Failure to Appear is from a warrant in Georgia.
2:40 – Ship tells Rubio she’s going to call ‘Nene’ while he runs her license. As Rubio is walking back to his car, Deputy Janean Strobert can be seen walking up to Ship’s SUV.
11:00 – Rubio tells Lt. Suddeth on the phone that Ship is trying to talk to ‘this lady, this deputy sheriff or something, but she ain’t finna do nothin’…She ain’t got nothin’ to do with this…She’s still hanging out right here, like, I don’t know what she got goin’ on.” According to the incident report, Suddeth called Rubio because Major Young wanted to know the nature of the incident.
13:00 – Rubio answers another phone call. The other caller cannot be heard, but he tells them he is confirming the warrant, that [Ship] is talking to a deputy sheriff, that deputy sheriff keeps getting in his way, and that it seems like she’s trying to interfere.”
“When we ran her name, it came back that she had a warrant. It is out of Georgia, it’s in-state pick-up only, it’s ‘Driving with a Suspended License’ and now it’s Failure to Appear for that, and No Proof of Insurance,” Rubio tells her.
15:25 – Rubio tells the caller that [Strobert] is about to be sent on her way for interfering.
15:35 – Another officer [Officer Gordon] walks up to Rubio’s window and he explains what’s going on with Ship. He tells the officer Ship got ‘a little hysterical’ when he told her about the warrants, ‘not crazy out of sorts, but talking about she’s going to call somebody.’
The two talk about waiting on the confirmation that the warrant is active and that it’s for Failure to Appear, to “it is what it is.”
16:45 – Rubio says “It looks like people keep gathering and they’re trying to make it a scene.” Gordon asked Rubio if the deputy was related to Ship. Rubio answered that he didn’t know because [Strobert] had not talked to him.
21:30 – The warrant is confirmed ‘active’ and Rubio is ‘cleared to transport’ Ship to the Chatham County Jail. He exits the vehicle to tell Ship she’s going to jail on the warrant for no insurance and no driver’s license. Ship is sitting in her vehicle and Rubio opens her door to ask her to step out.Gordon explains to Ship that she’s been cooperative so far, asks her to step out of the vehicle, and says he just wants to get things moving.
22:45 – Strobert can be seen on the passenger side, says “Hold on one second” and begins making a phone call. Strobert tells Rubio, “Well she’s an amputee, so…we not finna do anything erratic.”
Rubio replies, “Yeah, we’re not doing anything erratic at all.” Ship begins to cry and Rubio tells her he’s sorry multiple times.
Strobert asks again to be told what Ship’s warrants are for while Ship tells her she needs to get ‘Royal’ [the dog] from the car and take him to the house.
24:00 – Rubio asks the deputy what her name is and she replies “My name’s Strobert.” She is still on her phone.
Rubio then tells Ship if she needs assistance to ‘please’ let him know. “We’re not trying to make it harder for you than what it is.” Rubio and Gordon hold her belongings while she exits the vehicle with a cane. Ship tells them “All I wanted was a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.”
25:50 – Gordon asks Ship if she’d like to take all of her bracelets off because they will have to handcuff her since she is under arrest. “It’s our policy,” he says.
26:15 –
Ship: “Did chief call you?”
Rubio: “A few people called me. They said to keep on proceeding. Nobody told me to stop.”
Gordon: “This is all of us. This is a judge’s order. This has nothing to do with us.”
Ship: [to Strobert, who is still on the phone] “Tell Deon to call Chris Middleton, Judge Middleton. 911 him.”
Rubio answered his cell phone, explained to the caller that the warrant is active, had been confirmed with Chatham County, and he would be taking her to jail.
Gordon then tells Rubio he’s going to allow Ship to walk to the patrol car with her cane and they will handcuff her there. Rubio agrees.
32:50 – Ship gets into the patrol car and turns her belongings over to Strobert, including her purse and the dog. Strobert says, “Just give me keys, mom.” Rubio says, “This is your mother?” Both Strobert and Ship reply “yes.” Rubio then places Ship in handcuffs.
34:25 – Ship tells Strobert to let others know where she’s headed. Strobert says she will meet her over there. Her mother replies, “Call [Chief] Lenny [Gunther] and tell him where I’m at.”
35:30 – Rubio radios to dispatch that he has Ship in custody and he will be transporting her to the jail. He reports his starting mileage to dispatch.
36:20 – Sgt. Sammuel radioed for Rubio to wait at the location as he would be responding to the scene.
43:20 – Sgt. Sammuel arrives on scene. He tells Rubio that he’s trying to see if they can get them to cancel the warrant. He tells Rubio he didn’t do anything wrong before going to speak with Minter in front of the patrol car.
44:30 – Major Roy Minter of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office (formerly Chief of Savannah PD) arrives on scene.
44:48 – Rubio says to Ship “All these people in the Sheriff’s Office and they couldn’t fix this?” Ship laughed. They continue having a conversation and Rubio tells Ship that he pursued the warrant because it’s from Chatham County and they enforce Failure to Appear warrants there. He tells her he didn’t know her when he walked up.
45:45 – Sgt. Sammuel returns to the window to ask Rubio if he has the bond amount.
46:05 – Minter walks up to Rubio’s window, says ‘how are you?’ and moves on to Ship’s window to talk with her. Much of it is difficult to hear due to the air conditioning but they speak for approximately 1 minute. Rubio then removes his body camera and places it on the cage to video Ship speaking to Minter.
47:09 – Minter: “…then Major Young called me and I was like “She’s what?”
47:45 – Minter: “If it’s a failure to appear warrant, they’re going to have to transport you.”
Ship then tells Rubio she doesn’t have any money today and asks if she will be released on her own recognizance. Rubio says he wishes she would have straightened the warrant out before they met.
48:15 – “At this point, I cannot let you go. Do you know what kind of stress I’m under right now…you know all these folks,” Rubio says.
48:35 – Minter says, “Let me call the sheriff.” Ship replies, “That was my next call. Yeah, call Coleman.”
49:50 – Minter then steps away, returns to ask what agency issued the citations that resulted in a Failure to Appear. Rubio replies “The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.”
50:35 – Minter returns to the window to say “We’re trying to work it out…They need to call the court.” Minter replies someone is making calls to resolve it. Another person in an indistinguishable uniform appears in the back window and Ship tells that person to get her out of the patrol car.
51:40 – Ship tells Rubio “All of these people, these my boys.” She then tells Rubio she’ll write a letter for his sleeve after they get her out of the car and she understands he’s just doing his job.
53:50 – Major Shinita Young arrives on scene and immediately goes to Ship’s window. She informs Ship that she needs to be served and she ‘definitely needs to get this stuff cleared up…It’s still on file. What he did is correct.” After several minutes of speaking with Ship, Young addresses Rubio.
59:50 – Ship tells Young and Minter she has “no desire to go to the inside of the jail.” Minter replies that “he’s trying.” He tells her he hasn’t been able to get in touch with the sheriff, so they’re going to have to transport her and then the sheriff can release her.
1:00:10 – Ship calls Strobert over the vehicle, tells her to “pull Coleman’s number up, and 9-1-9 him. 911 him. Then call, what’s his assistant name, what that boy name?”
Minter – “I just got off the phone with Murphy.”
Ship – “If Murphy can’t find him, he can’t be found.”
1:03:00 – Ship looks at her cell phone and reads a text message. “Lenny just texted me and said “We’re trying to work this out for you.”
1:05:00 – Assistant Chief Gavin of SPD tells Rubio that Ship will be transferred to an unmarked vehicle for her comfort while additional efforts were made to resolve the warrant. Major Young removed the handcuffs from Ship and she was put in a vehicle with Young and Lt. Khaalis.
1:09:00 – Gavin then told Rubio to continue following standard arrest procedures while following Major Young to CCDC. He told Rubio that additional information regarding the warrant was being obtained and that a resolution might be reached before arrival.
Gavin says that if she is booked into the jail, she will be released after booking because of the ‘offense.’ He then says, “It’s just one of those where, you know, I’m not worried about her. She does a lot of good in the community, so we’ll do everything we can to help her keep doing good stuff.”
Minter made phone calls while Rubio spoke to Gavin, calling State Court Records, and a resolution was reached: Ship could pay a re-docketing fee and receive a new court date.
1:15:20 – Minter, still on the phone, returns to the car window and asks Rubio for the warrant number so he can relay the information to courthouse staff. He then tells Rubio Ship can be released if she goes to resolve the issue at the courthouse.
1:18:00 – Major Young and Lt. Khaalis tell Rubio that Ship is no longer under arrest because the court is going to re-docket the case with a new court date. Khaalis says ‘the warrant is vacated’ and they will transport Ship to the courthouse to resolve the issue. The arrest paperwork, Rubio was told, was no longer necessary. Minter added that “It [the warrant number] won’t be canceled until she goes down there. But it will be canceled.” Khaalis says “And she’s going now.”
Young and Khaalis then transported Ship to the courthouse in the unmarked police car.
