Deputy accused of killing Sonya Massey in Springfield was discharged from U.S. Army for serious misconduct / by kaitlynn cassady

Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy now charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, was previously discharged from the U.S. Army for serious misconduct, military records show.

Grayson, who is white, was indicted by a grand jury in the July 6 death of Massey, who is Black. Ben Crump, the family’s attorney, said the U.S. Department of Justice has also opened an investigation into the incident, but the agency said in a statement that it is “assessing the circumstances” and following the criminal case.

Documents obtained from the Kincaid Police Department, where Grayson previously worked, note that he was discharged in 2016 for “Misconduct (Serious Offense)” at the Fort Riley Army installation in Kansas. Army officials confirmed Grayson was a wheeled vehicle mechanic from May 2014 to February 2016, but declined to provide further details about his discharge. 

“The Privacy Act and (Department of Defense) policy prevent us from releasing information relating to the misconduct of low-level employees or characterization of service at discharge,” Army spokesman Bryce S. Dubee wrote in an email. Officials at Fort Riley did not return voicemails seeking comment.

Anthony Ghiotto, a former Air Force prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Illinois, said there are several reasons why a service member could receive this type of discharge, including as a potential result of a court-martial conviction, in lieu of a court-martial proceeding, or if they commit a civilian infraction that can’t be disciplined through the military justice system. He said this kind of discharge suggests that Grayson committed an offense equivalent to something that would have led to at least a year of incarceration for a civilian.

“A good way of looking at it is, if it would be a misdemeanor in the civilian world, it’s not going to be a ‘serious offense,’” he said.

Full story - Reporting by Farrah Anderson and Sam Stecklow, for Invisible Institute and the Investigative Reporting Workshop