The fired deputy charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in Illinois had been reprimanded in a previous job over inaccuracies in his police reports, failure to follow orders from a senior leader and a perceived lack of integrity, according to a disciplinary file.
The admonishments are in Sean Grayson’s personnel file from the Logan County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Office, where he worked for about a year before he joined the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office. Sangamon County fired Grayson this month, nearly two weeks after he killed Massey in her home after she had called police to report a prowler.
The records indicate that the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and the Auburn Police Department, where he worked from July 2021 to May 2022, had been aware of issues with his performance. The Logan County sheriff and the Auburn police chief declined requests for an interview or comment. It is not clear whether those departments shared any concerns with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office before Grayson was hired, though the Auburn Police Department appears to have relayed its concerns to Logan County. The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office has not responded to a request for Grayson’s personnel files.
In a conversation recorded on Nov. 9, 2022, Grayson was called in to talk with Nathan Miller, a chief deputy with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, and Michael Block, who identified himself as a lieutenant with the sheriff’s office. In the conversation, Grayson’s superiors told him that a report he had written would not be approved and submitted to the state’s attorney because it included inaccurate information and could be perceived as “official misconduct.”
NBC News obtained a recording of the conversation from the sheriff’s office through a public records request.
“Others will say you have no integrity and you’re lying to get to that traffic stop,” one of the men told Grayson in the recording. “And I have told you that I have zero tolerance for stretching the law. Because when you have officers that stretch the law, they will get caught, they will get prosecuted, and they will handcuff the rest of law enforcement in this state and this nation behind their back.”
Grayson said in the meeting that cases of his had been dropped because of his reports at a previous department.
At the close of the meeting, one of his superiors told Grayson: “The sheriff and I will not tolerate lying and deception. Nor should we or the county or the state or law enforcement partners. And you understand this?”
Grayson responded: “Yes, I do.”
Miller and Block did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The conversation came after Grayson was involved in a high-speed chase that, according to a disciplinary report in his personnel file, violated department policy and ended in his striking a deer with his squad car after he ignored a supervisor’s order to stop the chase. Miller said in a later report about the chase and the conversation that followed that Grayson had also misrepresented what he had observed and misreported where he had been stationed before the chase began. He had worked for the sheriff’s office for about six months when the conversation took place and was hired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office six months later.
Grayson, 30, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He is jailed without bond. His attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.
The fatal shooting has raised questions about Grayson’s job performance before he arrived at Sangamon County in May 2023. Illinois law enforcement records show that he moved among six law enforcement agencies in central Illinois in four years, with short stints as a part-time officer at three small police departments. He worked full time at one police department and two sheriff’s offices, state records show.
While records provided to NBC News by four of those departments do not include any complaints or disciplinary action against Grayson, he seems to have been a concern of senior officers in Logan County on more than one occasion.
In a separate conversation with Miller and Block on Nov. 9, 2022, Grayson was reminded that he had been warned about issues with accuracy in his reports, according to the audio recordings of the conversation provided to NBC News by the Logan County Sheriff’s Office. Grayson acknowledged that he had been given a list of reports that needed details to be fixed.
At the time of the meeting, Grayson was being treated for cancer and was on light duty. During the conversation, they discussed respecting the chain of command and wearing a uniform while on duty, according to the audio recordings.
“You have respect for a sergeant major in the big Army, but you don’t have respect for your chief on down at a little bitty sheriff’s office,” one of Grayson’s superiors told him.
Despite those reprimands and two complaints filed against him — one filed by a woman and the other by an inmate at the county jail — Grayson left the sheriff’s office in “good standing,” according to his personnel file.
Concerns about Grayson’s on-the-job behavior had been shared with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office before he was hired, records show.
The police chief in Auburn, where he worked before he was hired in Logan County, had relayed that Grayson was a “bragger” and had posted his drug arrests on Facebook, according to a document dated April 5, 2022, in his Logan County personnel file. The chief, Dave Campbell, also said Grayson was “not great with evidence” and had left items lying around the office, according to the document.
He also expressed concern that Grayson was “too aggressive” and noted that he struggled with report writing.
Campbell also said that Grayson had had no write-ups or punishments, that he was always early for work and that he was very eager for training and very receptive when he was talked to about any concerns, according to that document. An administrative assistant at the Auburn Police Department said by phone Monday that the police chief was not answering questions.
Grayson, who is white, fatally shot Massey, whose killing has drawn national attention, on July 6 in her home in Springfield in an exchange over a pot of water. Springfield is about 200 miles southwest of Chicago.
An autopsy report released Friday confirmed that Massey, who was Black, died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Grayson is 6-foot-3 and weighs nearly 230 pounds. Massey was 5-foot-4 and weighed 112 pounds, according to the autopsy findings. After he shot her, Grayson said he felt threatened by the pot of hot water Massey was moving from her stove, according to body camera video released weeks after her killing. Prosecutors have said in court documents that a counter between them provided him both distance and cover from the water and that she had put her hands up and said “I’m sorry” before he shot her.
