Peoria, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The Sean Grayson murder trial was moved to Peoria from Springfield because of pre-trial publicity. But, the issues raised by Sonya Massey’s death play in Peoria, too.
It wasn’t as large of a crowd as Monday, but those supporting Massey and calling for the conviction of Sean Grayson were out as soon as day one of testimony wrapped up yesterday.
They were organized by, among others, Peoria resident Keri Hayes.
“It just blows my mind that something like that has occurred, and that there were so many mixed reports” about Grayson’s abilities and character, said Hayes, “It shows …what type of a police officer he was. That makes me very sad, because I know he’s not the only one.”
Hayes says the best change to have happened in the world of officer misconduct, is the law Governor Pritzker signed a few months ago crafted by State Senator Doris Turner, mandating that officers’ full employment histories be made available to the next employer.
Hayes says she hopes Grayson would be convicted, and that it sends a message to other so-called “bad cops” with questionable employment histories.
But, she says a conviction would be good for Springfield, and might be good for Peoria, which has had its own history of officer-involved shotings in recent years, both before and after current Chief Eric Echevarria, who had said his department would do better. A shooting in August in Peoria occurred resulted in one death after the suspect allegedly swung a baseball bat at officers.
“Things are not that great here,” said Hayes. “We have a lot of issues going on with our police department as well. There’s officers that have been moved here from other departments. So, until officers are not allowed to leave a department due to misconduct and travel to another department, it’s definitely going to be something that needs to be an ongoing worked-on issue.”
Grayson has pleaded not guilty and claims self-defense. The trial will resume Thursday at 9:00 a.m.
Stay with WTAX News and CapitolCityNow for complete coverage of the trial, including daily live blogs.
