Sean P. Grayson, the now-fired Illinois sheriff’s deputy charged with fatally shooting 36-year-old Sonya Massey in her own home, had a disciplinary file that included accusations of bullying behavior and abuse of power, records obtained by CBS News show.
“He was acting like a bully,” Girard (Illinois) Police Chief Wayman Meredith said over the phone, recalling an alleged incident last year when he says an enraged Grayson was pressuring him to call child protective services on a woman outside of Grayson’s mother’s home. “He was wanting me to do stuff that was not kosher.”
Newly released audio recordings obtained by CBS News also show superior officers were worried about Grayson’s behavior.
In a recording released by the Logan County (Illinois) Sheriff’s Office, where Grayson worked from May 2022 to April 2023, a supervising officer is heard admonishing Grayson for what the senior officer said was his lack of integrity, for lying in his reports, and for what he calls “official misconduct.”
“The sheriff and I will not tolerate lying or deception,” the officer tells him in the audio recording of a Nov. 2022 meeting obtained by CBS News. At one point, the supervising officer warns Grayson that “officers [like you] have been charged and they end up in jail.”
The audio recording and Meredith’s description of Grayson’s conduct paint a picture of a man quick to anger and, according to documents, willing to abuse his power as an officer.
Massey’s family continues to seek answers following the release of bodycam footage showing Grayson, who was by then working for another department, shot her in the head as she crouched down in her kitchen. Grayson was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty.
The March 2023 encounter with Meredith, in which Grayson was described as “steaming mad,” was included in a multipage disciplinary file obtained by CBS News from the Logan County Sheriff’s office. The Girard police chief was concerned enough about the incident to flag it to the Logan County sheriff, noting that he believed Grayson had been recently diagnosed with cancer and his brother had died by suicide.
The disciplinary paperwork also included accusations against Grayson of “abusing his power” and “harassing” a man and woman arrested at a traffic stop. A complaint was filed against Grayson by the couple, accusing him of bullying behavior and of not respecting the woman’s privacy. Police reports say she had hidden drugs inside her body. In her complaint she described being told by Grayson and another male officer to remove the bag of drugs in front of them. She was later taken to a local hospital to have it removed by a doctor. She described feeling violated when she said Grayson barged into the examining room while the doctor was performing the procedure. Grayson denied any wrongdoing or even being present at the hospital.
The allegations leveled by the couple against him were ultimately deemed unfounded, and according to the paperwork, he left Logan in “good standing.”
Grayson was hired days later by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, in the Springfield, Illinois, area. He was working there on July 6 when Sonya Massey, a mother of two, called 911 to report a possible prowler. Grayson and another deputy responded to the call.
The other officer’s bodycam video shows Grayson entering Massey’s home and asking for her identification, and then directing her to turn off the stove where she had been boiling a pot of water. Massey complied, but said “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson became angry and threatened to shoot her. As she crouched down, he pulled the trigger, killing her. In the video, after the shooting, Grayson can be heard saying Massey was going to throw the hot water on him, which is not corroborated by the video.
CBS News previously reported Grayson pleaded guilty twice to driving under the influence prior to becoming a police officer, that he served in six different departments in four years, and that he left the Army after only 19 months.
Grayson’s attorney declined to comment to CBS News.
Sarah Metz contributed to this report.
