PHOTO BY DEAN OLSEN
Shadia Massey, a cousin of Sonya Massey, speaks July 22, 2024, at a information convention in Springfield concerning the launch of police body-worn digicam video depicting the July 6 deadly capturing of Sonya Massey in her Woodside Township residence by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson. Grayson was later fired by the sheriff’s division. At left is civil rights legal professional Benjamin Crump. Behind Shadia Massey is Sonya Massey’s son, Malachi Hill Massey, and to the precise of Shadia is household good friend Teresa Haley, founding father of nonprofit Visions 1908, and Sonya Massey’s daughter, Jeannette “Summer time” Massey.
The Jan. 16 settlement between Sangamon County officers and the U.S. Division of Justice ended a federal race and incapacity discrimination probe of county authorities however did not fulfill critics within the wake of the police-involved killing of Sonya Massey.
Sheriff Paula Crouch mentioned in a information launch from the county that the DOJ evaluate, introduced in November, “didn’t reveal any discriminatory practices, however we acknowledge that there’s at all times room for enchancment.”
Steps outlined in a “memorandum of agreement” between the DOJ and the county’s sheriff’s division, 911 dispatch system and county authorities will “not solely improve transparency and accountability but additionally strengthen our relationship with the neighborhood,” the sheriff mentioned.
Nonetheless, County Board member Anthony DelGiorno, a Springfield Democrat, mentioned the DOJ investigation appeared rushed so it might be accomplished earlier than Republican President-Elect Donald Trump was sworn into workplace Jan. 20.
DelGiorno mentioned he wasn’t aware of the content material of the requested data that county officers turned over to federal investigators.
However he mentioned the investigation apparently did not discover errors that have been made, and potential favoritism granted, within the sheriff’s division’s background investigation and subsequent hiring of Sean Grayson as a deputy in 2023.
Grayson, 30, a white Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, was charged with homicide within the July 6 capturing loss of life of Massey, a Black single mom of two youngsters who was coping with psychological sickness. Grayson was fired after the incident.
Justice Division officers in Washington, D.C., didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Grayson shot Massey within the head at about 1:20 a.m. July 6 after Massey suspected a prowler within the neighborhood, known as 911 and summoned police to her Woodside Township residence within the “cabbage patch” neighborhood simply exterior Springfield’s southern border.
Grayson has pleaded not responsible and is being held on the Macon County Jail. State’s Lawyer John Milhiser has requested the Illinois Supreme Court docket to overturn a 4th District Appellate Court docket choice that will permit Grayson to be launched whereas he awaits trial.
Critics say the sheriff’s division missed or overlooked numerous “red flags” in Grayson’s tenure at different central Illinois police departments and his background within the U.S. Military, in addition to his convictions for misdemeanor DUI offenses in 2015 and 2016.
The DOJ settlement requires county officers to evaluate and replace insurance policies and procedures and supply extra coaching on “non-disciminatory policing” and “interactions with people with behavioral well being disabilities.”
The sheriff’s division will broaden its crisis-intervention capabilities to higher reply to individuals with psychological sickness who want pressing help, and develop a “neighborhood engagement plan,” all as a part of the settlement.
The doc units up a “framework for information assortment and reporting for a two-year interval” of monitoring by the Justice Division, in line with a information launch. However the pact “doesn’t represent any admission of legal responsibility by the entities,” and the DOJ added that it “has not reached a discovering of discrimination.”
Members of Massey’s household didn’t reply to requests for remark.
State’s Lawyer John Milhiser mentioned: “How Sangamon County responds to the horrific loss of life of Sonya Massey is essential. This response is going on on many ranges, from the legal prosecution of Sean Grayson to making sure that legislation enforcement has the coaching and instruments essential to successfully reply to all kinds of calls. And this settlement with the DOJ will assist establish assets and finest practices to permit Sangamon County to offer the very best stage of presidency providers to its residents.”
After receiving a request from DelGiorno and County Board member Gina Lathan, one other Springfield Democrat, the citizen-led Massey Fee, fashioned in response to Massey’s loss of life, requested in October that the DOJ, Illinois legal professional basic and Illinois State Police conduct what the fee described as a “full evaluate of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Division hiring practices, procedures, evaluate of complaints, disciplinary actions, and such different subject material as mentioned businesses deem related.”
The DOJ kicked off its investigation in November and required Sangamon County officers to show over paperwork and different supplies in mid-December.
A DOJ letter Nov. 14 that knowledgeable county officers of the investigation mentioned Massey’s killing “raises severe considerations” concerning the sheriff’s division’s “interactions with Black individuals and other people with behavioral disabilities.”
DelGiorno mentioned the DOJ’s lack of a discovering of discrimination didn’t exonerate the sheriff’s division. He mentioned he doesn’t know whether or not the DOJ did sufficient work to make such a willpower, although the county’s information launch mentioned the DOJ “discovered no cases of discriminatory practices.”
DelGiorno advised Illinois Instances he now might ask the County Board to authorize an impartial investigation of what went unsuitable in Grayson’s hiring. He mentioned he is aware of that could be a tough promote for a Republican-controlled board and a county authorities with no Democrats in countywide elected positions.
DelGiorno wrote on Fb that the sheriff’s division’s actions associated to Massey’s loss of life and different deaths by the hands of correctional officers on the county jail and different deputies deserve scrutiny.
“I’m disillusioned that previous practices and actions aren’t being examined by the Justice Division,” DelGiorno wrote. “We study from our errors, however this settlement seems to brush these errors below the rug on the promise to have interaction the neighborhood and collaborate with the Massey Fee to enact new coaching, insurance policies and procedures.”
The settlement says county officers will evaluate any suggestions from the Massey Fee and “work collaboratively” to undertake them, “as applicable.”
The “as applicable” phrase provides county officers the choice to disregard Massey Fee suggestions, in line with County Board member Marc Ayers, a Springfield Democrat.
County Board Chairperson Andy Van Meter, a Springfield Republican, praised the deal, saying, “The Massey Fee’s work and request for this evaluate have been instrumental in figuring out areas for enchancment. Their advocacy has ensured that our practices are aligned with the very best requirements of equity and justice.”
The County Board did cross a decision at its Jan. 13 assembly to ascertain a nine-member panel that can examine the creation of a psychological well being board by a future referendum – as quickly as in 2026 – that might accumulate new property taxes to enhance psychological well being providers within the county. Creation of such a board was advisable by the Massey Fee.
However the County Board, additionally on the January assembly, voted down a Democrat-led proposal to place a referendum on the April 1 poll to offer voters the selection to create a method of firing a future sheriff mid-term in a recall referendum.
Republicans mentioned they don’t suppose county authorities, as a non-home-rule type of authorities, has the precise to permit an elected official to be recalled with out such a proper particularly outlined in state statute.
The controversy over recall was prompted by former sheriff Jack Campbell’s refusal to heed requires his resignation over his position in Grayson’s hiring. Campbell and Crouch, who was appointed to complete out Campbell’s four-year time period after he determined to retire in August, are Republicans.
As a result of the Republican majority on the County Board rejected the Massey Fee’s suggestion to place recall for sheriffs on the poll, DelGiorno mentioned, “I’ve little religion in our county management to do the precise factor.”
Ayers requested, “At this level, what’s the level of the Massey Fee?”
JoAnn Johnson, a cochair of the fee, mentioned the settlement doesn’t imply the fee’s work is completed.
She mentioned the fee is “happy that there was swift motion, and we stay up for reviewing the settlement.”
Johnson, a retired Illinois State Police colonel, mentioned she was disillusioned the County Board voted down a binding referendum on recall. “I don’t perceive the stark objection to it,” she mentioned.
Dean Olsen is a senior employees author for Illinois Instances. He will be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or x.com/DeanOlsenIT.
