An emergency motion filed by the Office of the State Appellate Defender asking for a supervisory order directing the Fourth District Appellate Court remand the hearing of a former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy charged with the July 6 murder of Sonya Massey back to the circuit court was denied by the Illinois Supreme Court.
That means Sean P. Grayson still has a hearing regarding the conditions of his pre-trial release before Circuit Court Presiding Judge Ryan Cadagin on Jan. 2, 2025.
Still before the state high court is the State’s Petition for Leave to Appeal (PLA) asking that it address the appellate court’s Nov. 27 ruling that cleared the way for Grayson’s release.
More: Emergency motion to Supreme Court asks Grayson hearing be set by circuit court
The Supreme Court could accept or deny the PLA and stay Grayson’s release indefinitely beyond Jan. 2.
The emergency motion filed on Dec. 6 asked the high court to not wait until Jan. 2 to set the case for a hearing. It was denied with no comment.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser said in a news release announcing the filing of the PLA that Grayson had demonstrated that he “cannot comply with conditions and is a danger to the community.”
Among “conditions” for Grayson’s release could be home confinement and some sort monitoring system.
Grayson, 30, is being held at the Macon County Jail in Decatur.
Zacari Moore of Springfield protests outside of the Sangamon County Complex on Dec. 2, 2024. A hearing to set conditions for the release of Sean P. Grayson, who is charged with the murder of Sonya Massey, will take place Dec. 6, 2024, before Judge Ryan Cadagin.
Cadagin twice ordered Grayson to be detained under the Pre-Trial Fairness Act, part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act, but the three-justice panel unanimously ruled the lower court had been in error.
“The trial court’s focus on defendant’s failings as a law enforcement officer, while understandable, distracted from the central question of how to address any risk he posed after being stripped of his office,” the Nov. 27 opinion read in part.
A hearing had been scheduled Dec. 6, but the appellate court stayed a motion filed through the State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office to move the hearing 35 days out from the issuance of the Nov. 27 ruling.
The shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman and mother of two children, who had called 911 about a possible prowler around her home in an unincorporated Springfield neighborhood, was caught on body cam and its release to public has caused an international outrage.
The U.S. Department of Justice last month launched an investigation into the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department and other offices.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Supreme Court denies emergency motion in Sean Grayson case