Chris Nanos is facing pressure after reportedly skipping a public county meeting where officials were expected to discuss allegations that he lied under oath about his disciplinary history during a 2024 lawsuit.
The controversy comes as scrutiny continues to surround the handling of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, who vanished from her Arizona home earlier this year.
According to the New York Post, two members of the Pima County Board of Supervisors planned to introduce a motion seeking Nanos’ removal if he did not resign ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department declined to directly address the allegations, instead telling the Post: “We will respectfully await the Board’s decision before commenting on the matter.”
What are the allegations against Chris Nanos?
The dispute centers on testimony Nanos reportedly gave during a 2024 legal proceeding, when he was asked whether he had ever been suspended during his law enforcement career.
According to the New York Post, Nanos answered “no.” However, records later revealed that he had allegedly been suspended multiple times while serving with the El Paso Police Department in Texas decades earlier.
The disciplinary actions reportedly involved accusations including “insubordination” and “consistent inefficiency.” The report also stated that Nanos resigned from the department in 1982 “in lieu of disciplinary action” after a dispute with a supervisor.
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Nanos’ attorney, James Cool, later acknowledged the existence of the disciplinary record in a memorandum submitted to county officials but argued the sheriff had been referring only to his Arizona law enforcement career when answering the question.
“Bad faith media reports have divorced this testimony from its context,” Cool wrote. He further argued that events from more than four decades ago were “irrelevant to the performance of his duties as an elected official.”
Officials call for accountability
Critics of the sheriff pushed back against that explanation.
Matt Heinz, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors supporting efforts to remove Nanos, accused the sheriff of repeatedly avoiding accountability.
Also Read: Nancy Guthrie update: Sheriff says ‘nothing new’ as search reaches 100 days; volunteer groups upset over ‘zero response’
“This is accountability for a guy who has evaded accountability for decades and is himself a public safety threat,” Heinz told Fox News.
The controversy has added to criticism surrounding the sheriff’s handling of the Nancy Guthrie investigation.
Nancy Guthrie was reportedly abducted from her Tucson-area home on February 1 by a masked gunman. Authorities have repeatedly claimed investigators possess promising DNA evidence and other leads, but no suspect has publicly been identified and no arrests have been announced.
