Grayson’s behavior in Logan County led superior to ask, ‘How are you still employed with us?’

[July 27, 2024]  By BETH HUNDSDORFER
Capitol News Illinois
[e-mail]

Before former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson was accused of shooting Sonya Massey after she called police to investigate a prowler, he had a rocky, one-year tenure with the Logan County Sheriff’s Department.

Personnel records show that Grayson’s time there was fraught, though he was not fired by the department. Grayson’s file from Logan County shows he continued a high-speed pursuit of a traffic offender even after his supervisor ordered him to terminate it, a woman filed a complaint claiming Grayson tried to watch as she was strip searched, and her fiancé, who was in Logan County jail, claimed Grayson questioned him in front of other inmates as retaliation for his girlfriend’s complaint.

Logan County Chief Deputy Nathan Miller wrote in a November 2022 report that Grayson needed “extensive” training after failing to listen to his superiors. He wrote Grayson needed field training, along with “additional traffic stop training, report writing training, high-stress decision making process classes, and needs to read, discuss and understand issued Logan County Sheriff’s Department policies.”

“Seven months on. How are you still employed by us?” Miller asked Grayson during a recorded meeting to discuss Grayson’s actions.

“I don’t know,” Grayson responded.

Grayson continued to serve with Logan County Sheriff’s Department for five more months.

Miller told Grayson that these were violations that could lead to his firing. Grayson was still in his probationary period and could be fired at will. The records don’t reflect Grayson was disciplined for the incidents, but more training was recommended.

Miller did not return a call seeking comment.

The open internal investigations were closed when Grayson resigned in April 2023 having not faced any discipline. He started his job at the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department in May 2023.

Miller wrote the report nearly two years before Grayson shot Massey in the kitchen of her home after she called 911 to report a prowler in the early morning hours of July 6.

The deputies cleared the outside of the house near Springfield without finding anyone but went inside to question Massey after finding damage to a vehicle parked outside of her home.

The encounter turned violent when officers noticed a pot heating liquid on the stove and allowed her to remove it. As the unidentified officer who answered the call with Grayson moved away, Massey, who is Black, said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson, who is white, then threatened to shoot Massey in the face. Moments later, he pulled his 9 mm service weapon and fired three times, striking Massey once in the face.

On the body camera video, Grayson dissuaded his fellow officer from issuing aid to Massey because the wound was fatal. As Massey lay on the kitchen floor, Grayson told the other officer he feared Massey was going to throw the liquid on them and she gave him no choice but to fire.

Grayson was fired from Sangamon County and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty.

After Massey’s death, questions arose about Grayson’s qualifications. Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board records show he worked for six law enforcement agencies around central Illinois in four years, despite two convictions for driving under the influence, a two-year revocation of his driving privileges and a general discharge from the military.

Grayson had been at the Logan County Sheriff’s Department for just over four months in 2022 when he continued a pursuit after his superiors ordered him to terminate. He was on probation and working the midnight shift when he attempted to stop a truck that failed to signal a turn, but the driver kept going.

Miller noted Grayson pursued the truck through Lincoln at high speeds and without due caution going through intersections. Miller noted Grayson’s squad car was traveling faster than 60 mph in 30 mph zones. In squad car video obtained by Capitol News Illinois, Grayson’s supervisor on duty asks if he is chasing the truck on a traffic violation and Grayson says he is. The supervisor tells Grayson to terminate the pursuit.

Instead of slowing down, Grayson turned off his emergency lights and siren and continued at speeds more than a 100 mph “to keep the truck in sight,” he wrote in his report. The pursuit ended when a deer collided with Grayson’s vehicle, rendering it inoperable.

During a recorded meeting to discuss Grayson’s deficiencies in November 2023, Miller met with Grayson and tried to impress on him the importance of following a chain of command, writing accurate reports and wearing a uniform while on duty.

At one point, Miller pointed out discrepancies to Grayson’s report of the high-speed chase. He asked if Grayson was lying because he could not see what he purported to see in the report. That, Miller said, “is official misconduct.”
 

Attorney Benjamin Crump, the renowned civil rights lawyer who is representing the family of Sonya Massey, speaks at a news conference Tuesday alongside Massey’s son, Malachi Hill Massey. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)

At the time, Grayson was on light duty. He was battling colon cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.

A month after the meeting between Grayson and Miller, the sheriff’s department received a complaint that Grayson tried to watch as a female detainee was strip searched. When contraband was discovered, the woman was sent to a local hospital to have it removed. In a written complaint, she contended he opened the curtain while she was having a pelvic exam to remove drugs.

The report was unfounded, but his supervisors recommended that Grayson receive counseling on best practices. Two weeks later, the woman’s fiancé, who was being held in Logan County Jail, filed a complaint stating Grayson came to the jail and questioned him in retaliation.

“He is angry at her for filing the report and came back here and asked to speak to me in front of all of the other inmates, who now know that I talked to detectives which could possibly put me in danger!” the man wrote.

Grayson denied any wrongdoing, but the department launched an internal investigation.

In March 2023, Grayson pulled up to a dispute at his mother’s house in Girard. The police were there and Grayson pulled his badge, according to the Girard police report. The disagreement involved a custody dispute over Grayson’s nephews, the report stated.

Grayson became angry and began yelling at the Girard police officer who handled the call, then called the police chief and the mayor, according to Girard police reports.

In response to an Illinois Freedom of Information Act request, the Logan County department also released Grayson’s hiring packet, discipline and other personnel records. Those records included his application, interview notes, reference checks and screenshots of his and his girlfriend’s social media accounts.

Grayson’s personnel records included a detailed background check, which revealed potential red flags.

The police chief in the city of Auburn, his previous employer, relayed to Logan County that Grayson was very aggressive about making drug arrests and expressed concern that he was too aggressive. The chief further said Grayson was a “bragger” who once posted on social media about a drug arrest.

The Auburn chief also noted that Grayson struggled with report writing and was “not great” with evidence – though the chief relayed that Grayson received no write-ups or punishment during his time at Auburn.

During his interview with Logan County on March 25, 2022, Grayson answered 195 questions posed by a Logan County Sheriff’s investigator.

Grayson told him, according to the interview notes and his application, that he received an honorable discharge from the Army. But Capitol News Illinois obtained the discharge paperwork he submitted to the Pawnee Police Department in 2020, which showed he was given a general discharge from Ft. Riley, Kansas in 2016 – although the exact circumstances of the discharge were not clear.

During his interview with Logan County, Grayson said he had applied for police departments in Champaign and Decatur, as well as the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department, but he said he turned them down. Grayson said he made it through the background check, according to interview notes.

He also said that he applied to the Springfield Police Department in 2019 but didn’t “go through the process.”

Massey’s family and their attorney, Ben Crump, have said the family was not told that Massey was killed by an officer – they learned it through news reports. Emergency calls placed to the Sangamon County Central Dispatch System obtained by Capitol News Illinois show confusion in the minutes after the shooting.

“We don’t have any information, and nobody will tell us anything, which is really fun,” the dispatcher tells a supervisor during one of the calls.

In the minutes after the shooting, a county dispatcher tells an Illinois State Police dispatcher, “they are now saying it’s self-inflicted.”

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed it is “assessing the circumstances” surrounding Massey’s shooting.

Calls for Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell’s resignation have grown amid increasing questions surrounding Grayson’s hiring. A petition online had 28,000 signatures on Thursday night.

The petition questions Campbell’s decision to hire Grayson despite his two DUI convictions. On Friday, Campbell asked for an extension in response to a Capitol News Illinois request for documents related to hiring practices at the sheriff’s department.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.