Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos’ political tenure has won him both community support and — amid mounting lawsuits over abuses and deaths in the jail he runs — calls for his resignation.
After being appointed to the position in 2015, Nanos, a Democrat, ran the next year and lost to Republican Mark Napier. He ran again — again against Napier — and won in 2020, taking office in January of the following year.
Now, Nanos is vying — a third time — for the county’s top law enforcement position under the campaign slogan: “We still need Nanos.”
As the incumbent with two stints in office under his belt and 40 years in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, Nanos has plenty of legal history to dig into. Other sheriffs before him were also frequently sued for alleged problems with the department. Nanos is named in more than two dozen lawsuits ranging from deaths in the jail to minor traffic accidents involving his deputies.
In January, the Pima County Deputy’s Organization, which represents half of the department’s deputies, approved a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence in Nanos.
“The vote was called after years of frustration at the lack of competent leadership and mismanagement from Sheriff Nanos and his senior command,” a statement attached to the post reads.
Nanos kept his cool as his political opponents brought up his history during a June 17 candidate forum.
Republican challenger Terry Frederick said he’s witnessed “how bad this department got,” calling Nanos’ leadership “toxic.” In a previous debate on June 8, Nanos’ Democratic challenger Sandy Rosenthal said that he wouldn’t commit to voting for Nanos in the general election if Nanos won the primary.
Nanos focused more on his record and his plan for moving forward than responding directly to the criticism. “This is a tough job, but it’s a job I wanted because I believed I could do it,” Nanos said, asking voters to trust him for another four years.
Voters will soon decide if Nanos or his Democratic challenger Rosenthal will take the Democratic ticket. Meanwhile, three Republicans seek to challenge the Democratic contender in November. They are Heather Lappin, Bill Phillips and Frederick.
The primary election is July 30, with early voting beginning July 3. The winners of each primary will face off in the general election in November.
Arizona Luminaria checked the background of each candidate running for sheriff this year. See the background checks for other candidates. Arizona Luminaria found that neither Rosenthal nor Phillips had significant legal histories — as was the case with the other three candidates — to merit an explanation to voters.
RICO investigation and other allegations
Nanos encountered serious legal trouble in 2016 when, while he was sheriff, the FBI investigated the department for misusing RICO funds.
RICO funds are money seized during criminal investigations under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The seized money is distributed to law enforcement agencies to use for further police work, with requests needing to pass through the county attorney’s office for approval.
The sheriff’s department’s misuse of funds goes back nearly 20 years, well over a decade before Nanos became sheriff. But the financial improprieties — including using seized money for awards banquet dinners and to bankroll a café that was operated by the niece of one of the department’s top officials — only came to light when Nanos was in office. One deputy was prosecuted and another, a person of interest to the FBI, committed suicide in 2016.
Nanos was not indicted, but the controversy left a stain on his time at the helm of the department.
More recently, in November of 2023, the Arizona Attorney General opened a criminal investigation into Nanos’ handling of an alleged sexual assault of a female deputy by a sergeant in December 2022. That state investigation followed the Pima County Board of Supervisors voting to request an independent investigation into Nanos’ conduct.
According to a letter shared with Arizona Luminaria by the state attorney general’s office, an agent from the Tucson Special Investigation Section was assigned to the case. The attorney general’s office told Arizona Luminaria on June 19 that they couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation.
Arizona Luminaria asked Nanos for a response to the state attorney general’s investigation into his handling of the alleged sexual assault investigation and the various lawsuits he is named in, including ones involving jail deaths, and how he thinks these cases would affect his responsibilities as sheriff. Nanos did not respond to the specific lawsuits, however, he stressed that he inherited a “number of lawsuits” from the prior sheriff.
Shortly after former Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson called in September 2023 for a formal independent investigation into the sheriff’s handling of the inquiry, Nanos said that his deputies would no longer be providing security at board meetings. Days later, Nanos reversed his decision and sheriff’s officers continue to provide security at the meetings.
The Pima County Deputy’s Organization, a union that represents sheriff’s deputies in the county, stated that following the assault the female deputy filed a formal internal complaint against her lieutenant, captain and chief. The complaint alleges that the sheriff’s department leaders “were aware that she was being actively sexually assaulted by her sergeant, Ricky Garcia, and refused to intervene for 80 minutes,” according to a November 2023 Arizona Daily Star report.
In June of 2023, the deputy also sued Pima County, two of her supervisors and Nanos, seeking $900,000 in damages.
Aaron Cross, a leader of the Pima County Deputy’s Organization, is suing Nanos for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights after he spoke out in April against Nanos on a local radio show. An internal investigation found that Cross did not violate any department regulations.
Nanos’ attorneys responded to the suit in May denying any wrongdoing and emphasizing that Cross was not ultimately sanctioned for speaking out.
Later that same month, Nanos’ attorneys filed a petition in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, claiming immunity from the lawsuit, stating the internal affairs investigation was “conducted in accordance with the rules and policies.”
Cross’ attorneys pushed back, according to a May filing in the same court, saying the investigation was retaliatory and unnecessary. As of July 1, neither Nanos’ attorneys nor the judge in the case has responded to the latest petition.
Outside of legal matters, Nanos also came under heat from the board of supervisors in 2023 after his department was expected to be more than $3 million over budget for last fiscal year.
Former Supervisor Sharon Bronson said at a July 11, 2023 meeting that she was perplexed how the department could have gone so over budget. In response, Nanos said, “You cannot come to this sheriff and say, oh, by the way, we’re giving you one and a half to two million dollars in pay raises but we’re not funding them and then yell at the sheriff because he’s over budget.”
Deaths in the Pima County jail
Deaths in the jail have both prompted a number of lawsuits and provoked the strongest public outcry. After 10 people died in the jail in 2021, which was a per capita mortality rate more than three times the national average, protesters began taking to the streets and coming to public meetings to demand action.
In 2022, there were another 10 deaths in the jail, and eight in 2023.
Family members of people who have died in the jail worry that some deaths may go unreported.
During his tenure, Nanos has faced more than a dozen lawsuits related to deaths in the jail, including from the first period he served as sheriff. A local community group, No Jail Deaths, founded by family members of people who have died in the jail, has been among Nanos’ primary public critics.
Frances Guzman’s son Cruz Patino Jr. died in the jail in 2021. Guzman is actively campaigning against Nanos, including holding regular rallies and vigils outside of the jail. “I’ll do whatever I can to vote him out,” she said. “My mission is to save lives.”
So far in 2024, there have been no reported deaths in the jail. Nanos credits his own actions, including calling for more strict body searches for drugs and more consistent oversight from guards, for the steep and sudden reduction in deaths.
One of the ways Nanos has been trying to deal with criticism he’s faced at the jail is by asking the county for raises for his deputies, which he received in late 2022, and by proposing the county build a new jail.
The idea for a new jail was publicly debated and studied by a county-chartered Blue Ribbon Commission. After almost a year of analysis, the commission gave county officials various options to proceed, including the construction of a new jail at a cost of more than $850 million.
Instead of issuing a final decision, county officials continue to study the idea, with the next report due in August.
In closing statements at a candidate forum on June 17, Nanos stressed his willingness to work with diverse communities and groups such as the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP. He also touted his record in increasing staffing in his department.
At the June 17 forum, Nanos said that when he came into office there were fewer than 1,300 people on staff in the department. That number is now up to nearly being 96% fully staffed, he said during his closing remarks at the forum.
Nanos credits the increased staffing, as well as policy tweaks such as more thorough inspections of staff and detained people entering the jail, for avoiding any deaths since September 2023.
Read more about this series
Your voter guide: Where Pima County sheriff candidates stand on key issues
Voters will soon decide whether Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos should keep his job. Nanos, a Democrat, was first appointed to the office in 2015…
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