photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Lt. Myrone Grady appears Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, in Shawnee County District Court.

A Lawrence police officer will not be immune from prosecution after a Shawnee County judge on Monday rejected the officer’s claim of self-defense and found his testimony “not credible.”

Lt. Myrone Grady, an award-winning, 23-year-veteran with the Lawrence Police Department, was charged with misdemeanor battery last February after allegedly striking a man and knocking him down following Grady’s son’s basketball game at a Topeka high school on Jan. 27.

The alleged victim’s grandson played on the same team, but the confrontation was not about basketball but stemmed from prior issues between the families, according to testimony.

Grady, 51, and the alleged victim, a man in his mid-60s who described himself as a “senior citizen” with mobility limitations, both took the stand Monday and offered very different versions of what was said and who did what that winter day. Each man testified that he was simply trying to leave the gymnasium after the game and that the other man initiated a physical altercation.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Magistrate Judge Christopher Turner swears in Lt. Myrone Grady before he testifies on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, in Shawnee County District Court.

Magistrate Judge Christopher Turner noted the “conflicting testimony,” including testimony from the man’s daughter, and based his ruling largely on video evidence, which was played in court Monday as a dozen or so Grady supporters sat in the gallery. The soundless, color video came from the security system at Shawnee Heights High School.

The footage appears, as Turner described it, to show the two men having some sort of verbal exchange while about 10 feet apart before Grady pivots, raises his arm and strikes toward the man’s face, which the man blocks with his forearm before falling.

The man testified that his arm was sore after the incident and that his side hurt from falling on the bleachers but that he did not have any “significant” injury.

His version of events is that he was slowly descending the bleachers to say “good game” to his grandson and that he heard Grady use vulgar language toward his daughter, who is in her 40s, that “I didn’t care for.” He said that Grady “came straight toward me” and said “get your daughter under control.” The man said he told Grady to “shut the hell up” and “he swung at me” with a closed hand, striking the man’s raised arm and knocking him down.

“You’re going to jail for that,” the man testified that he told Grady.

Grady was adamant in his testimony that the man, not he, had been the aggressor and that the man had descended the bleachers pointedly, cussing wildly at Grady, balling both fists in anger and appearing to raise them, leading Grady to believe “he was going to hurt me” and ultimately causing Grady to “strike first.”

Grady said that he never said a word to the man other than the man’s name in an attempt to talk to him about the daughter and that he used the least force necessary — one hit — to subdue the perceived threat. Afterward, he said, “I kind of stood there. I couldn’t believe it happened.”

Grady also told the court about a monthslong issue between the families that had been “so volatile, it’s nuts.” He said that the man’s daughter and Grady’s wife had been “probably best friends” at one point.

The friendship began to unravel last September, however, when the woman and her husband had “a serious altercation” and Grady and the police became involved, creating a bitterness in the woman that he said had most recently manifested with her being upset that Grady had given her child $5 to spend at the concession stand during a basketball game.

Grady said that he often gave kids a few dollars at games to buy treats, but in this instance it caused the woman to become angry and to text his wife.

As Grady testified Monday, the alleged victim watched from the gallery and grunted or laughed loudly twice as if to dispute Grady’s testimony, prompting the judge and defense attorney Shaye Downing to look his way and the assistant district attorney, Megan Weddle, to signal to him to knock it off.

Shawnee County Sheriff’s Deputy Fred White, who filed the probable cause affidavit in Grady’s case, testified that he could not determine from the video if the man had approached Grady with balled fists, but he didn’t deem him to be charging at Grady, and he believed from what he observed in the video that Grady was the aggressor.

In closing argument, the prosecutor argued that Grady is a good-sized man — 6 feet 1 — and a trained police officer and could have just walked away instead of engaging with the older man.

“No reasonable person could believe punching him was necessary,” assistant DA Tara Phipps said.

Grady’s attorney, however, asked the court to look at the situation from Grady’s vantage point and see what he saw “in the moment,” not all of which was captured by the angle of the video camera.

The judge took about an hour recess before returning with his decision denying Grady’s motion for immunity based on self-defense. The video suggested that Grady was the initial aggressor when he raised his arm, the judge said.

“The court does not find defendant’s testimony credible,” the judge ruled, nor, he added, was Grady’s use of force “reasonable based on the totality of circumstances.”

With the immunity claim off the table, the prosecution of Grady will continue, with the next court date set for Oct. 29.

A spokesperson for LPD told the Journal-World that Grady had told Chief Rich Lockhart about the incident immediately.

“Lt. Grady was off duty outside our jurisdiction,” Laura McCabe, the spokesperson, said last February. “In alignment with our policy, we will not conduct a full internal investigation until the conclusion of any court proceedings.”

Grady, an award-winning officer, had worked at LPD for nearly 20 years when he was named as the department’s first executive officer for diversity and community engagement in 2022, as the Journal-World reported. Grady has held a number of positions with LPD, including as a school resource officer from 2008 to 2012 at South Middle School and Lawrence High School. In 2011 he was named Kansas SRO of the Year.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lt. Myrone Grady, right, appears with his defense attorney, Shaye Downing, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, in Shawnee County District Court.