Pima County sheriff no stranger to controversy as criticism in Nancy Guthrie case ramps up
OSINT
NEWIt is possible you’ll maybe maybe presumably also now listen to Fox News articles!
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who is going via increased scrutiny because the hunt for the lacking Nancy Guthrie nears the two-week designate, has been below the public microscope before.
Unusual experiences and courtroom recordsdata demonstrate the sheriff has been embroiled in controversy several times in the end of the last decade.
Within the weeks main up his 2024 re-election, which he gained by a margin of 481 votes, Nanos placed opponent Heather Lappin, a lieutenant on the Pima County Detention center, on administrative scoot away, ordering her to not discuss about the reasoning for his resolution, Inexperienced Valley News reported.
He did the same to Sgt. Aaron Substandard, an outspoken opponent of his and the head of the Pima County Deputies Group.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos speaks at a recordsdata conference about a taking pictures the morning of Jan. 27, 2026, intelligent a U.S. Border Patrol agent.(Sarah Lapidus/The Republic/USA This day Network by strategy of Imagn Photographs)
Substandard reportedly campaigned in opposition to Nanos, holding a signal on a road nook that talked about “Deputies Don’t Want Nanos” dazzling before he turned into placed on scoot away. Nanos claimed Substandard campaigned in opposition to him whereas wearing legit apparel issued by the Pima County Sheriff’s Division (PCSD) in breach of department ideas, which Substandard denied.
In a federal lawsuit, filed in opposition to Nanos, Capt. Juan Navarro and the PCSD, Substandard claims “Nanos intentionally or recklessly allowed an employment action against Plaintiff Cross that deprived Plaintiff Cross of the ability to contribute to conversations related to matters of public concern, and failed to consider or understand the First Amendment right to freedom of speech on matters of public concern.”
In August, Lappin also filed a lawsuit in opposition to Nanos, claiming that after she decided to bustle for place of enterprise, “Sheriff Nanos and PCSD leadership waged a retaliatory campaign against Lieutenant Lappin’s career in order to undermine her candidacy.”
The scoot neatly with says Lappin volunteered to quilt parts of a “general instructor” college for one other lieutenant who had a scheduling struggle. She had taught the final teacher college seven times beforehand, covering the same lieutenant several of those times.
FBI investigators search the Catalina Foothills in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in the end of their investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.(DWS for Fox News Digital)
But the college officially required a master teacher to coach, which Lappin turned into not. The lawsuit says despite covering the path before and despite a superior lustrous about the scheme, Lappin turned into disciplined for her actions for the first time after she declared curiosity in working in opposition to Nanos. The scoot neatly with says Nanos for my piece signed the disciplinary action, a transfer described as “atypical.”
She turned into then without observe assigned to the Pima County Adult Detention Center and talked about she obtained no motive for the transfer.
“The Training Center coverage issue was the start of a broader effort by Sheriff Nanos and PCSD leadership to damage Lieutenant Lappin’s reputation and undermine her campaign,” the lawsuit says.
“Within weeks of filing her Statement of Interest, Captain Anderson had revoked Lieutenant Lappin’s teaching authority and command transferred her from the Training Center to the Jail. Although labeled a lateral move, this punitive transfer functioned as a demotion in responsibility, stature, and opportunity.”
The scoot neatly with also says that after Lappin posted a describe of Substandard’ state on her campaign online page online, she turned into promptly placed on scoot away.
Indirectly, she accused Nanos in the lawsuit of sending out a press begin dazzling weeks before the election notifying the public that Substandard turned into on scoot away for “political campaigning while representing [himself] as a department member under the color of authority” and that “[i]t is known that Sergeant Cross is collaborating with Lieutenant Heather Lappin on her campaign,” and that Lieutenant Lappin turned into “questioned” about Sergeant Substandard’ activities.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been lacking from her Arizona dwelling since Jan. 31, 2026. (Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Photographs)
Per the lawsuit, the begin also accused her of “collud[ing] with a journalist to facilitate payment to an inmate in exchange for a news story” whereas she labored on the jail, which Lappin denied.
“In total, Lieutenant Lappin has been referred to internal affairs five times since declaring her candidacy in 2023,” the lawsuit says. “Before her candidacy, she had one internal affairs referral during approximately eighteen years of service with PCSD.”
Both Substandard’ and Lappin’s conditions are ongoing.
Quickly after Nanos’ slim 2024 victory, the Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted for an self reliant investigation into whether or not Nanos turned into accountable for felony wrongdoing in the end of the election. That case turned into referred to the Arizona attorney general’s place of enterprise, but no costs were ever brought.
In 2022, a female PCSD deputy turned into allegedly sexually assaulted by a supervisor at a vacation occasion. The supervisor, Ricardo Garcia, turned into chanced on not guilty of sexual assault in December 2024 but turned into chanced on guilty of two counts of attempted sexual assault and two counts of sexual abuse. Garcia turned into sentenced to at least one year in penal complex and three years of probation.
In 2023, the Pima County Deputy’s Group claimed Nanos did not probe how the department’s management handled the investigation into the incident, which led to at least one other referral for an self reliant investigation by the Arizona attorney general’s place of enterprise.
All another time, the place of enterprise chanced on no felony wrongdoing but did indicate that the department can also fair have broken several of its dangle ideas.
An FBI billboard in Albuquerque, N.M., raises awareness about the gaze lacking Nancy Guthrie. (KRQE)
After the attorney general’s place of enterprise released its account, the Pima County Board of Supervisors formally voted for Nanos to clarify to the public the train of the interior investigation.
In 2015, Nanos turned into the appointed chief of PCSD. He had taken over the place after frail Sheriff Clarence Dupnik retired and turned into working for election to the seat in 2016. But, that very same year, the FBI began investigating the department for misuse of civil asset forfeiture funds.
In many conditions, funds confiscated by police from criminals can be saved and spent on licensed items fancy extra equipment for law enforcement.
In October of that year, Chief Deputy Chris Radtke turned into indicted on federal costs and accused of wrongly utilizing a full lot of hundreds of dollars of the forfeited sources. The department also reportedly spent $20,000 building a commercial kitchen to initiate a café that turned into bustle by Radtke’s niece. Radtke took a plea deal, agreeing to plead guilty to a pair misdemeanor counts of theft of authorities property. He did not scoot to jail.
Nanos turned into by no draw charged.
Right via that investigation, Nanos gave a fiery interview to KGUN by which he sharply rebuked the FBI.
FBI brokers canvass homes approach Nancy Guthrie’s dwelling in Tucson, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.(Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
“When it comes to an FBI investigation, I was taken aback by that as much as anybody,” he talked about. “Here’s an agency who for years has been known to deny or acknowledge anything about any kind of investigation. They’re famous for that.”
Nanos complained that the FBI confirmed to a reporter that the department turned into below investigation despite what he considered as its proclivity for secrecy. He talked about he had been contacted by frail FBI Assistant Particular Agent in Trace in Tucson Andy Dark and had a “benign” dialog with him.
“Am I upset at the FBI? Absolutely,” he talked about in the interview. “They get by with saying ‘no comment.’ Who does that today? They think they’re fine with that. And when this thing’s all resolved and the case is all over, I challenge Mr. Black to stand up by himself and say, ‘We looked at this investigation, and we completely find this investigation to be total BS.’ Because that’s what it is. But you won’t hear that because they won’t confirm or deny.”
He later quipped that if the FBI turned into “having problems doing investigations … please, call us because we have real policemen here.”
Nanos lost his election for sheriff that year but ran all another time and turned into elected in 2020.
Right via the Guthrie investigation, Nanos has been accused of slack-rolling the FBI’s involvement and wrongly shipping proof to a non-public lab in Florida as a change of to the FBI’s headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Space of job stays outdoors Nancy Guthrie’s dwelling Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz.(Ty O’Neil/AP State)
Both of those claims he denied in an interview with Fox News’ Matt Finn on Friday.
He told Finn that investigators were utilizing the Florida lab from the initiate of the investigation and that Guthrie family DNA, as effectively as assorted DNA, had already been sent there.
“Why split your evidence to two different labs that could create a conflict, but more importantly, it adds that additional step,” he talked about. “This lab has this piece, this lab has that piece. Now they’ve got to converge those two pieces to make an elimination or identification. No, just send it to one lab. Let’s go. They’re both great labs. They both have great equipment and smart people.
“We belief the FBI’s crime lab. We’ve venerable them before. But, on this case, we started with that lab,” he said. “It’s dazzling that easy.”
Nanos also denied the claim that his office delayed contacting the FBI for assistance in the case, saying he has no reason not to partner with the federal law enforcement agency, that it would be “fully crazy” not to do so and that his department and the FBI are working well together. He said he called the FBI Feb. 2, the first business day after the investigation began.
Nanos did not return a request for comment.
Peter D’Abrosca is a reporter at Fox News Digital covering campus extremism in higher education.
Apply Peter on X at @pmd_reports. Ship memoir pointers to peter.dabrosca@fox.com.
