The deputy who killed Sonya Massey raised concerns about his aggressiveness and integrity issues in previous jobs

The fired deputy accused of murdering Sonya Massey in Illinois had been reprimanded in his previous job for inaccurate police reports, failure to follow a superior’s orders and allegations of lack of integrity, according to a disciplinary record.

The admonishments are found in Sean Grayson’s personnel file from the Logan County, Illinois, sheriff’s office, where he worked for about a year before transferring to the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office. Sangamon County fired Grayson this month, nearly two weeks after he killed Massey in her home after she called police to report a burglar.

Records indicate that the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and the Auburn Police Department, where he worked from July 2021 to May 2022, were aware of issues with his performance. The Logan County Sheriff and Auburn Police Chief declined requests for an interview or comment. It is not clear whether those departments communicated any concerns to the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office prior to Grayson’s hiring, although the Auburn Police Department appears to have forwarded its concerns to Logan County. The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for Grayson’s personnel records.

In a conversation recorded on November 9, 2022, Grayson was called in to speak with Nathan Miller, a deputy sheriff with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, and Michael Block, who was posing as a lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Office. In the conversation, Grayson’s superiors informed him that a report he had written would not be approved and submitted to the district attorney because it contained inaccurate information and could be considered “official misconduct.”

NBC News obtained a recording of the conversation from the sheriff’s office as part of a public records request.

“Others are going to say you have no integrity and you’re lying to get to that traffic stop,” one of the men in the recording told Grayson. “And I told you I have zero tolerance for stretching the law. Because if there are police officers who stretch the law, they’re going to get caught, they’re going to get prosecuted, and they’re going to handcuff the rest of law enforcement in this state and this nation behind their backs.”

Grayson said at the meeting that his cases had been dropped because of his reports to a previous department.

At the end of the meeting, one of his superiors told Grayson, “The sheriff and I will not tolerate lies and deception. Neither should we, the county, the state, or our partners in law enforcement. And you understand that?”

Grayson replied, “Yes, I do.”

Miller and Block did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The conversation came about after Grayson was involved in a chase that, according to a disciplinary report in his personnel file, violated department regulations and ended with him striking a deer with his patrol car after ignoring a supervisor’s order to call off the pursuit. Miller said in a later report of the chase and subsequent conversation that Grayson also misrepresented his observations and incorrectly reported his whereabouts before the chase began. He had worked for the sheriff’s office for about six months at the time of the conversation and was hired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office six months later.

Grayson, 30, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and abuse of authority in connection with Massey’s death. He is being held without bail. His attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.

The fatal shooting raises questions about Grayson’s job performance before he arrived in Sangamon County in May 2023. Illinois law enforcement records show he moved between six law enforcement agencies in central Illinois in four years, with brief 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.

Although records provided to NBC News by four of those departments show no complaints or disciplinary action against Grayson, he appears to have been a cause for concern among senior officials in Logan County on more than one occasion.

In a separate conversation with Miller and Block on November 9, 2022, Grayson was reminded that he had been warned about accuracy issues in his reports, according to audio recordings of the conversation provided to NBC News by the Logan County Sheriff’s Office. Grayson confirmed that he had been given a list of reports that needed details corrected.

At the time of the meeting, Grayson was being treated for cancer and was on light duty. During the conversation, they talked about 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 have no respect for the boss in the tiny sheriff’s office,” one of Grayson’s superiors told him.

Despite these reprimands and two complaints filed against him – one by a woman, the other by a county jail inmate – Grayson left the sheriff’s office “in good standing,” according to his personnel file.

According to records, concerns about Grayson’s conduct on duty were reported to the Logan County Sheriff’s Office prior to his hiring.

The police chief in Auburn, where he worked before being hired in Logan County, had relayed that Grayson was a “show-off” and posted his drug arrests on Facebook, according to an April 5, 2022, document in his Logan County personnel file. The chief, Dave Campbell, also said Grayson was “not good with evidence” and left items lying around the office, according to the document.

He also expressed concern that Grayson was “too aggressive” and noted that he had difficulty writing reports.

Campbell also said Grayson had not received any warnings or punishments, that he always came to work on time and that he was very diligent in training and very receptive when spoken to about his concerns, the document said. An administrative assistant for Auburn police said by phone Monday that the police chief was not answering questions.

Grayson, a white man, shot Massey, whose murder attracted national attention, on July 6 during a dispute over a pot of water in her Springfield home. Springfield is about 200 miles southwest of Chicago.

An autopsy report released Friday confirmed that Massey, who was black, died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Grayson is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs nearly 230 pounds. Massey was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds, according to autopsy results. After he shot her, Grayson said he felt threatened by the pot of hot water Massey had dragged away from her stove, according to bodycam video released weeks after her killing. Prosecutors have said in court documents that a counter between them gave him both distance and protection from the water and that she put her hands up and said “I’m sorry” before he shot her.