News analysis: Abusive cops still wander from department to department mistreating citizens

By William H. Freivogel

One reform that grew out of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 was that recalcitrant states with strong police unions passed decertification laws to take away peace officer licenses from those with a track record of seriously abusing citizens.

California and Massachusetts, two states with strong police unions, passed laws to decertify serious abusers. Illinois strengthened its decertification law despite strong unions in Chicago that had defended a police department with a long history of torture, abuse and wrongful convictions.

But three recent cases in Illinois and Missouri show that the problem of “wandering” police officers – those who move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to evade the consequences of their misbehavior – is far from solved.

• In Illinois, Sean Grayson, a former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy is now charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey. Grayson was previously discharged from the U.S. Army for serious misconduct, records show. Yet he went on to work for six mid-Illinois departments before killing Massey. Grayson, who is white, was indicted by a grand jury in the July 6 death of Massey, who is Black. The Justice Department also has opened an investigation and President Biden called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Police Act – something unlikely to happen because of GOP opposition.

• A year ago, a Kansas police chief, Gideon Cody – who had left the Kansas City, Mo. police department while under investigation for sexist and insulting comments – led a search of the Marion County Record office and the home of the paper’s feisty publisher. Under the federal Privacy Protection Act police cannot search newspaper offices for criminal evidence even if they have a search warrant. Instead they must use subpoenas, which are less intrusive.  

• Six months ago, a St. Louis Police officer with a record of complaints against him, fought with the owner of a gay bar in St. Louis and arrested him for resisting arrest – all after a police cruiser drove accidentally into the bar. Police and prosecutors have refused to turn over the records of the police officer’s allegedly abusive past. The prosecutor’s office has indicated the police won’t turn over the records to him without a judge’s order.

Both Missouri and Illinois have relatively strong laws providing for the decertification of officers. Those laws are intended to avoid just this problem, where officers violate citizens’ rights in one jurisdiction and wander on to a job in another where they repeat their abusive behavior.

Sonya Massey

The Invisible Institute in Illinois reported that documents obtained from the Kincaid Police Department, where Grayson worked previously, note that Grayson was discharged from the Army in 2016 from the Fort Riley Army installation in Kansas for “Misconduct (Serious Offense).”  

The Springfield killing occurred after Massey called the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department because of a suspected intruder at her home in the Cabbage Patch neighborhood.

Body-camera footage shows that Grayson shot Massey three times after entering her home with another deputy. 

After an initial discussion and request for Massey’s driver’s license, Grayson told her to remove a pot of boiling water from the stove to avoid a fire.

Massey asks the officers why they moved away from her. “Where you going?” she asks.

“Away from your hot steaming water,” Grayson answers.

Massey, who friends said had mental problems, responds: “Away from the hot steaming water? Oh, I’ll rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson, pulling his pistol, responds, “You better fucking not, I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson said.

Massey says, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry” as she kneels behind a counter. Grayson fires three times. One bullet hits below the eye and exits her neck. 

Grayson discouraged the accompanying officer from providing medical aid.

“She’s done,” Grayson told the other officer. “You can go get it, but that’s a head shot.”

Grayson was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and is currently held in the Menard CountyJail without bond.

Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell fired Grayson, writing online that his actions don’t reflect the values or training of the department.  

“Sonya Massey lost her life due to an unjustifiable and reckless decision by former Deputy Sean Grayson,” Campbell wrote. “Grayson had other options available that he should have used. He will now face judgment by the criminal justice system and will never again work in law enforcement.” 

Records show that Grayson had a DUI while in the Army and that while in Logan County, he pursued a vehicle as fast as 110 miles per hour against the direct orders of his superiors and hit a deer, WAND-TV reported. His supervisors recommended “high-stress decision making” training for him. At another Illinois department, the Village of Kincaid, he was considered a “loose cannon.”

The Invisible Institute quoted a former chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department, saying Campbell hired Grayson despite a history that should have been a glaring warning. 

“In this particular circumstance, there were enough red flags or things that you go, wow, there’s a problem here,” said Chris Burbank, a former longtime chief in Salt Lake City.

Campbell defended his agency’s vetting of Grayson and said he wouldn’t resign.   

Newsroom search attracts national criticism

Gideon Cody left a relatively well-paid job as an officer with the Kansas City Police Department to take a much lower paid job as sheriff in Marion, Ks. in 2023. He was under investigation for sexist remarks before leaving Kansas City. By leaving Missouri and going to Kansas, Cody left behind the disciplinary problems and any issues about compliance with Missouri’s police decertification law. 

The Sept. 23, 2023 list of officers provided by the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) program listed Cody as having an active license but “not currently employed.”

Missouri law does not provide the names of officers who resign while under investigation. Without a signed waiver from the officer, the state cannot provide any history of alleged abuses. It can only provide the officer’s name, licensing status and employing agency. POST cannot discuss specific cases and individuals.

In Marion Cody obtained a search warrant for the local newspaper and for the home of its  publisher. 

The raid involved a disagreement between the newspaper and a business woman seeking a liquor license from the city. Cody maintained that the newspaper’s search of  the Kansas Department of Revenue’s website amounted to identity theft and a computer crime.

But the newspaper and the paper’s attorney contend Cody actually was trying to find out what information the paper had about his past problems in Kansas City. Cody left his job as a captain of the Kansas City Police Department while under investigation for making insulting comments to a female officer. 

During the August, 2023 search, officers found documents relating to Cody’s alleged actions on the Kansas City Department. 

Seven law enforcement officials spent two hours in Meyer’s home, while his 98-year-old mother protested their search. She died a day later. 

Last September the Marion City Council suspended Cody and he resigned a week later.

The federal Privacy Protection Act makes it illegal for law enforcement officers or government officials to search a newsroom in connection with a criminal investigation and the law generally requires the police to use a subpoena, not a search warrant, when it seeks information from a reporter or news organization.

After news broke of the August raid, more than 30 news and press freedom organizations condemned it. This was “arguably the biggest press freedom story of the year,” said ICPA’s Immediate Past President Chris Kaergard, who is also a professor in the Communication Department at Bradley University. 

Police and prosecutor withhold allegations of past abuse in St. Louis

More than six months after a police car veered off the road and ran into a popular gay bar – Bar:PM – police and prosecutors in St. Louis still haven’t turned over the police disciplinary records of one officer involved in the incident. The lawyers for the bar owners say the records will show that the officer has a history of abuse.

Chad Morris, one of the bar owners, was charged last year with resisting arrest and assault after police crashed an SUV into his popular gay bar. He accused prosecutors last month of withholding information showing that an arresting officer had a history of roughing up citizens. 

In bar incident began when a rookie officer slammed into Morris’ bar at 7109 S. Broadway. Morris and his husband and business partner, James Pence, came outside to see what happened. Pence was handcuffed, and officers took him down the gangway at the side of the bar. Morris followed.

Pence filed a suit against the police department and the officer who handcuffed him, Officer Ramelle Wallace. The suit says officers beat Morris. Police and prosecutors claim Morris pushed one officer and then tried to run away.

Morris’ attorneys argue Wallace has a history of complaints about beating people at crime scenes, the city jail and in his own neighborhood.

Javad Khazaeli, the lawyer,  maintains Wallace was accused by a neighbor in 2010 of pushing her against the trunk of a car and holding a gun to her stomach. In addition, Wallace faced a lawsuit that settled with the city for $125,000; he was accused of handcuffing and beating a bystander at the scene of an assault.

In June 2023,  Wallace body-slammed and choked a man in the booking area of the city jail, the lawyer said. Prosecutors charged the man who was beaten, but the case was eventually dismissed.

“The Circuit Attorney’s office has direct knowledge of Officer Wallace’s penchant for using excessive force and making up probable cause to justify his illegal behavior,” a court filing says.

A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office maintained in an email that the motion was “one-sided,” and said the office planned to file a response.

At a recent hearing, St. Louis’ chief trial lawyer Marvin Teer refuted suggestions that Gabriel Gore’s Circuit Attorney’s Office was in cahoots with police to cover up wrongdoing.

But the prosecutor’s office indicated in an email that the police department would likely refuse to turn over Wallace’s personnel records until a judge ordered them to do it.

Khazaeli said last month that he believed the case against Morris was bad and didn’t understand how it could proceed.  

Judge David Roither recently asked prosecutor Rob Huq during a hearing “How do you expect to explain” an assault and resisting arrest charge when the police crashed into the bar in the middle of the night and then demanded a bar owner’s identification?” Huq defended the prosecution.

The police department’s refusal to turn over records of past misconduct by officers has long been a source of sharp disagreement. Former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner Gardner had put 60 to 70 officers of the St. Louis department on the “Brady list” of officers she would not call to the stand because of past dishonesty, criminal convictions or racist statements on social media. Brady v. Maryland is the 1963 Supreme Court decision requiring the government to turn over evidence that might help clear a defendant. In response to Gardner’s list, the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, called Garnder a “menace” and called for her removal. She later resigned.

Gore, Gardner’s successor, has received positive reviews so far, but the lawyers for Bar:PM say he is violating the Constitution by withholding exculpatory evidence. St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy, also well-regarded for his first year, apologized for the cruiser crashing into the bar, but too has held back information on the incident, saying he is told by city lawyers that he can’t release it.

‘Model’ laws with loopholes

Missouri and Illinois decertification laws are stronger than many states. Both states have a process for decertifying not only those convicted of felonies, but also misdemeanors. In Missouri, that could includes theft and assault. Illinois decertifications were mostly limited to felony convictions until the law was reformed in 2021 to include misdemeanors.

Missouri has decertified about 1300 officers since it began decertification in 1988. That is one of the higher levels in the country.

But one major loophole in the Missouri’s law is that the decertification list does not list the name of the law enforcement agency that the officer worked for, making it difficult to find patterns in the hiring of abusive officers. Nor does the state release details of the officers’ abusive actions.

State law states: “The name, licensure status, and commissioning or employing law enforcement agency, if any, of applicants and licensees pursuant to this chapter shall be an open record. All other records retained by the director pertaining to any applicant or licensee shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed to the public or any member of the public.”

Mike O’Connell, head of communications for the Missouri POST, maintained in a response to the Sunshine Act request by GJR that the state can’t provide the information on the former employer because, “In the case of a licensee who has been revoked, there is no commissioning or employing law enforcement agency.” In other words, the officer once had a employing law enforcement agency but doesn’t after he loses his license.

Missouri does list the names of all certified law enforcement officers and their departments, something that many other states do not. Sam Stecklow of the Invisible Institute, a transparency and police reform group, has been tracking state law and challenging some of the least transparent. He says Arkansas, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia, Delaware, Wisconsin and Colorado are among the dozen or so states that don’t release the names of law enforcement officers for privacy reasons. The reason often given is that the safety of uncover officers would be put at risk.

Illinois’ 2021 reform law expanded the reasons for decertification. But its recent application of the law raises questions.

The Illinois Law Enforcement and Training Standards Board now publishes an annual report naming the officers who were decertified. In 2022 the board reported the decertification of 33 police officers and 175 citizen and agency complaints of alleged misconduct since July when the new statute for allowing citizens to report took effect. In 2023, 21 officers were decertified and the board received 496 complaints.

But the board did not release the names of the decertified officers in 2023 even though it had in 2022. When asked why the names were not included, a spokesperson said names were not listed because of “recent case law.” Asked to provide the case law the spokesman did not respond, despite repeated inquiries.

William H. Freivogel is the publisher of Gateway Journalism Review. The article first appeared in the Summer 2024 print issue of GJR.