As the nation awaits updates on the Nancy Guthrie case, an effort to evict Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos from office fell flat at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday night. However, the board did agree to send perjury accusations against him to the state attorney general.
The result leaves Nanos heading the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “TODAY” co-host Savannah Guthrie — even as unrest inside his own department is reportedly worsening by the day.
Push to oust Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos fails at Board of Supervisors meeting
With no significant updates in Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction case, the media has been questioning the lead investigators, including Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s Chris Nanos and FBI Director Kash Patel.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors scheduled a meeting to address accusations against Nanos that he committed perjury while lying under oath. It began with supervisor Steve Christy asking the board to declare the sheriff’s office vacant and start replacing him on the spot. Nobody seconded the motion, so it died right there.
Then Supervisor Rex Scott stepped in with a different approach, moving that the board take no action to remove Nanos under Arizona law, and instead refer the perjury allegations to the attorney general’s office without taking any position on whether perjury actually happened. Supervisor Hines backed the motion, and it passed four to zero as Christy abstained.
After the vote, Scott accused the sheriff of doing nothing to fix a badly broken department, stating that his “chief concern” was that Nanos “has taken no discernible efforts to repair relationships and trust within our largest department.”
Moreover, he pointed to a recent vote by the deputies’ own organization wherein more than 250 members gave Nanos a vote of no confidence, and not a single person voted in confidence. Scott called that event “very telling with regard to climate and feelings about the stewardship of the department.”
All of this plays out while the Nancy Guthrie case drags past the 100-day mark with no major updates. Meanwhile, tensions between Nanos and the FBI have been very public, and Supervisor Matt Heinz has been trying hard for his removal for weeks. But for now, Nanos stays in the picture.
