Pima County leadership has lost confidence in their sheriff and desire his immediate resignation.
Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz told “Brian Entin Investigates” that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos should resign because of his current job performance as well as his alleged untruthfulness about past misconduct within Pima County and elsewhere.
Heinz called Nanos “a proud and stubborn man” and “dismissive” of the accusations against him.
“He’s disqualified himself from retaining his positions,” said Heinz. “He really should just hang it up.”
The unsolved disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, 84, is the most recent issue plaguing Nanos. Next Wednesday will mark two months since Guthrie went missing.
The Guthrie case, currently without arrests or promising leads, has been plagued with a myriad of issues from the start: an unsecured crime scene, delayed inclusion of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), conflicted information provided to the media, and submitted DNA evidence to a third-party lab rather than the FBI.
“It’s been almost two weeks and we still haven’t seen his letter of resignation,” said Heinz. “The FBI has been so very frustrated.”
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information into Guthrie’s disappearance.
Heinz reported his office has been inundated with emails and phone calls to remove Nanos from his post, but the county supervisors lack the power to do so outright. The only pathway available to the board for removing Nanos from office would be if the sheriff refused their directive to testify under oath about his office.
Heinz said the board would likely vote at their next meeting to require the sheriff to testify.
Heinz accused Nanos of hiding a “very troubling” work history from his time with the El Paso Police Department in New Mexico. Heinz questioned how Nanos ever received Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) certification.
Employment records reveal Nanos misrepresented his work history on his public resume; Nanos claimed he resigned in 1984, when in fact he was terminated in 1982 over a litany of disciplinary issues to include insubordination and excessive force. Nanos was suspended eight times over the course of five years while working at the El Paso Police Department.
“He never would have been hired and certainly never would have been certified with AZPOST,” said Heinz.
Heinz alleged this withholding of information was Nanos “perpetrating a fraud” ever since joining the county in the 1980s.
“The first thing he did when he set foot in this county and was looking for work in Pima County was to mislead, and misrepresent, and, frankly, just lie about his work history,” said Heinz.
Based on this misrepresentation of his work history, Nanos was alleged to have committed perjury during a deposition last December. Nanos claimed he had no previous suspensions.
“So to have eight [suspensions] in five years, this is a really troubling record. He was, frankly, a bad cop,” said Heinz.
Nanos also faces accusations of abusing his authority by targeting his political opponents. Heinz accused Nanos of using his authority as sheriff to sway the election against his 2024 Republican challenger for the sheriff’s office, Heather Lappin.
In the final weeks of the election, Nanos placed Lappin, a lieutenant within the Pima County’s Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), on leave over a claim that she colluded with a journalist to pay an inmate in exchange for a news story. Nanos ordered Lappin to not discuss the reasons for her leave — only he could discuss it publicly.
Lappin later said she was instructed by PCSO colleagues to allow the reporter to reimburse an inmate for the cost of their call. Heinz, a Democrat, endorsed Lappin and believes she was unfairly targeted.
“[Nanos] effectively locked up his opponent, forced her to stay home, and then put out all sorts of false information about her using county resources and letterhead [for her campaign],” said Heinz.
Lappin lost by less than 500 votes.
Last August, Lappin filed a lawsuit against Nanos over his action against her, claiming he “waged a retaliatory campaign” against her career through unusual disciplinary actions “in order to undermine her candidacy.” Lappin departed PCSO for Queen Creek Police Department last October.
The Pima County Deputy’s Organization issued a vote of no confidence in Nanos earlier this month.
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