Personnel files from a recently employed sheriff’s department the deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey at his home revealed additional details about his work history before arriving in Sangamon County, Illinois.
Sean Grayson worked for the Logan County, Illinois Sheriff’s Office from May 2022 to April 2023.
In his employment application, he revealed that he abused alcohol in the Army and that he got “a lot” drunk in his life. While working for Logan County, he was also accused in separate complaints of leaving a woman feeling violated during her arrest and of harassing her fiancé during a prison visit. Grayson refuted the allegations in both complaints, which are marked “unsubstantiated” in his lawsuit.
He was disciplined once after he struck a deer with his cruiser during a chase that violated department policy.
The records, which NBC News obtained through a public records request, said Grayson left the sheriff’s department in “good standing.”
Grayson shot and killed Massey in his Springfield home on July 6th. Massey, who was black, called police that morning to report a suspected burglar. Grayson, who is white, and another Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, who has not been identified, responded just before 1 a.m. While he was at her house, Grayson shot Massey in the head in an exchange for a pot of water. He then discouraged his partner from trying to save her, according to the body camera video.
Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office fired Grayson last week. He was charged with murder in Massey’s death.
Grayson worked for six law enforcement agencies as of 2020, all in central Illinois, state law enforcement records show. Three of these jobs were part-time, with some overlapping with others.
Admission of previous alcohol abuse
In an initial candidate interview for the Logan County Sheriff’s Office dated March 25, 2022, Grayson was asked if there was any period in his life when he thought he had abused alcoholic beverages, and he said yes while in the Army.
In an interview Thursday, Ben Crump, the prominent civil rights attorney representing Massey’s family, said it was “terrible” that Grayson had been allowed to work in law enforcement and that the revelations to the Massey Sheriff’s Office Logan County should have raised red flags.
“It makes me wonder if he had some kind of drug or alcohol in his system the night he killed Sonya Massey,” Crump said. “And obviously that begs the question: How did he get a job as a deputy sheriff with his troubled past?”
Before working in law enforcement, Grayson was a wheeled vehicle mechanic in the Army from May 2014 to February 2016, Army spokesman Bryce Dubee said. He had no missions and left the Army with the rank of private first class.
Grayson has twice pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, in 2015 while enlisted in the Army and in 2016, court records show.
According to his discharge documentation from the Army, obtained from his personnel file at the Kincaid Police Department through a public records request, the reason for the separation is listed as “misconduct (serious offense)”. The police department did not immediately respond to an inquiry into what explanation, if any, Grayson gave about the circumstances of his discharge.
Dubee said he could not comment.
“The Privacy Act and the DoD [Department of Defense] The policy prevents us from disclosing information related to the misconduct of low-level employees or the characterization of service upon discharge,” Dubee said in a statement.
Grayson disclosed both DUIs in the applicant’s initial interview with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. He also reported that his license was suspended in 2016 for driving under the influence of alcohol.
He was working for the Auburn Police Department when he applied to work in Logan County. According to a copy of the candidate’s interview, Grayson said he did not drink regularly, “only on vacation,” and that he had last drunk at a wedding in January of that year.
In response to a question about how many times in his life he had been drunk, Grayson responded: “A lot. Perhaps more than a hundred”, according to the document.
Grayson’s attorney declined to comment.
Discipline after car chase
Grayson was disciplined once while working for Logan County, according to his personnel file. In September 2022, he was chasing a truck after noticing the driver behaving suspiciously and later observed the driver not signaling when turning.
He pursued the truck “at a high rate of speed” and “failed to demonstrate due caution when driving through stop intersections,” according to an internal investigation report included in the personnel file.
In an interview with a superior after the accident, Grayson acknowledged that he lacked experience.
The supervisor recommended that he receive training in high-stress decision-making, traffic stops, and report writing. The supervisor also said Grayson needed to “read, understand and discuss” department policy.
Two complaints considered ‘unfounded’
Grayson was the subject of two complaints while working in Logan County, according to his personnel file. In December 2022, a woman accused him of “inappropriate” behavior during his arrest. And a month later, her fiancé, who was an inmate at the Logan County Jail, accused Grayson of “abusing his power” and harassment when Grayson questioned him after his arrest. The prison superintendent did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
The woman alleged that in October 2022, Grayson instructed her to remove drugs she had hidden inside her in front of him and another officer at the Logan County Jail.
“I went to do as he instructed me, feeling very scared and forced to do so,” but a prison officer intervened, she wrote in the complaint.
The woman also alleged that when she was later taken to the hospital to have her medications removed, while lying in a hospital bed behind a “completely exposed” curtain, Grayson “opened the curtain” and saw her exposed.
“I felt very violated on both occasions,” she wrote in her complaint.
In another report filed in January 2023, her fiancé said that Grayson visited him while he was being held in the Logan County Jail because of the woman’s complaint. He claimed that Grayson told him that another man had rescued the woman from prison and that she was living with the man.
According to the complaint, the groom said he asked Grayson why he told him this and Grayson responded, “Well, I thought you guys were getting married. That’s pretty cool, don’t you think?
Attempts to contact the woman and man who filed the complaints were unsuccessful Thursday.
Grayson refuted the allegations, which are marked “unfounded” in his lawsuit. He wrote in a response included in his personnel file that he had asked the groom if he knew a man linked to him and the woman who filed the complaint, but denied making the statements the groom cited him as saying. He also said that he did not harass the groom and that he did not talk or interview him alone.
Grayson also dismissed the woman’s allegations and said he was never alone with her. He said he had knocked and entered the hospital room, but that she was dressed and had a blanket over her when he did so. He said he left the room after giving the doctor an evidence bag to retrieve the medications.
Grayson has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He is being held without bail.
Massey’s murder drew widespread attention and sparked protests in Springfield, which is about 200 miles southwest of Chicago.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
