Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos was suspended eight times during his early career at the El Paso Police Department, according to records obtained through a public records request, a history now under formal review as the 70-year-old lawman faces mounting criticism over his handling of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie.
The records, first reported by the Arizona Republic, describe allegations of excessive force against suspects, a false statement to authorities, off-duty gambling, and chronic tardiness. The most serious incident, dated March 1982, involved a handcuffed robbery suspect described as "intoxicated and uncooperative" whom Nanos allegedly threw against a patrol vehicle and struck in the face "several times." That suspect was hospitalized with severe blood loss. Nanos received a 15-day suspension, his longest, for the incident.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors has now ordered Nanos to provide sworn testimony about whether he misrepresented his early law-enforcement career to county officials. That deposition demand followed reports alleging Nanos concealed or distorted his work history before joining the Pima County Sheriff's Department in 1984. A spokesperson for Nanos, Brittany Abarr, offered a carefully worded response.
As the Daily Mail reported, Abarr said:
"Sheriff Chris Nanos remains committed to full compliance and will continue to operate with openness and transparency moving forward. His priority remains maintaining public trust and serving the community with integrity."
That language, "openness and transparency", rings hollow to critics who say Nanos has been anything but transparent in the Guthrie case, a high-profile disappearance that has gone unsolved for more than two months.
Nanos began his law-enforcement career with the El Paso Police Department, where the disciplinary trail stretches back to at least 1979. One document from that year credited him with saving his partner's life by shooting a suspect from a rooftop, an act of bravery that sits alongside a far less flattering pattern.
By June 1980, Nanos was in trouble again. His second-longest suspension followed an incident in which he allegedly used profane language about the wife of a man named Wayne Robertson, who had been arrested for public intoxication and refusing to identify himself. Robertson had reportedly declined to give his address because he did not want his wife bothered. Nanos allegedly threatened to take Robertson to the desert.
A witness to the arrest lodged a complaint. Nanos denied stopping the witness in the street, but dispatcher logs showed he had called in a warrant check on the same individual. He was suspended for ten days for lying.
The March 1982 beating of the handcuffed suspect drew the most serious consequences. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Nanos after the suspect filed a police assault charge report. But Nanos was reportedly forced to resign from the El Paso Police Department that same year. Two years later, in 1984, he joined the Pima County Sheriff's Department, where he eventually rose to the position of sheriff in 2020.
The question the Board of Supervisors now wants answered under oath is straightforward: Did Nanos tell county officials the truth about this record?
Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home on the night of February 1. Surveillance footage later showed a masked man appearing to break into her property in the middle of the night. More than two months later, no suspects have been arrested or publicly identified.
The investigation has drawn sustained criticism on multiple fronts. Two individuals were briefly apprehended, one ten days in, another 13 days in, and both were released without charges after authorities determined they had no connection to the case. Nanos was criticized for attending a basketball game roughly a week into the disappearance while others continued the search. And last month, he declared he has "no regrets" over the investigation.
Fox News reported that sources accused Nanos of discouraging the Guthrie family from issuing a large reward for leads, fearing an influx of tips could muddy the investigation. Savannah Guthrie eventually issued a reward 24 days into the search. The sheriff's department also drew fire over a misleading social media post about the case that further eroded public confidence.
Nanos was also criticized for sending evidence to a private lab instead of using the FBI, a decision that raised questions about whether the sheriff was keeping federal investigators at arm's length.
Those questions deepened as additional reporting emerged. Breitbart reported that sources claimed Nanos restricted key case decisions to himself and two command staff officers rather than allowing experienced detectives to lead the investigation. A law enforcement source told the Daily Mail, "They're keeping everything from the FBI, they just aren't sharing."
Former Pima County department chief Richard Kastigar Jr. was blunt in his assessment: "This case should have been turned over to the FBI two weeks ago and the sheriff's department should have followed and supported them." Kastigar described Nanos as a micromanager who is not effective. The criticism came even after President Trump offered full federal law-enforcement support in the case.
Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, told the New York Post that frustration inside the department had reached a breaking point. Cross described what he called "a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos." That assessment, from the head of the deputies' own professional organization, carries particular weight.
Investigators have said they believe they know the motive behind the kidnapping, though the sheriff's office has not disclosed it publicly. Meanwhile, the department has also been reassessing key leads, including one involving a backpack.
The political fallout is no longer hypothetical. Republican congressional candidate Daniel Butierez is leading a bipartisan recall effort against Nanos, as the Washington Examiner reported. Butierez has roughly 120 days to collect approximately 120,000 signatures to force a recall vote.
Butierez called Nanos "an embarrassment to Tucson and to Pima County with this Nancy Guthrie case." He described the Guthrie investigation as "just the straw that broke the camel's back," pointing to broader complaints about Nanos's leadership on crime and border issues. Among those prior grievances: a nearly unanimous deputy vote of no confidence and the scrutiny over alleged resume misrepresentations that the Board of Supervisors is now investigating under oath.
Residents across the political spectrum have rallied behind the recall effort, a rare bipartisan consensus in a county that typically splits along familiar lines. The Guthrie case appears to have unified people who otherwise agree on little, except that the sheriff's handling of this investigation has been inadequate.
Critics also pointed to the early opening of the crime scene at Guthrie's Tucson home as a procedural failure that may have compromised evidence. In a case where every piece of physical evidence matters, that kind of decision invites hard questions about competence and judgment.
When asked by News4 Tucson whether he would comply with the Board of Supervisors' deposition demand, Nanos replied: "Yes absolutely." That willingness is noted. But the record speaks for itself: eight suspensions in El Paso, a forced resignation, allegations of false statements to both Texas authorities and Arizona county officials, and a high-profile investigation that has produced no arrests in over two months.
Nanos joined the Pima County Sheriff's Department in 1984, two years after leaving El Paso under a cloud. He spent decades climbing the ranks. He became sheriff in 2020. Now the community he serves is asking whether the man entrusted with public safety has been honest about his own past, and whether his leadership is equal to the moment.
The ongoing reassessment of leads in the Guthrie case only adds to the sense that this investigation has drifted. Nancy Guthrie's family, and the public, deserve answers, not from a press release, but under oath.
Accountability is not optional for the people who wear the badge. It is the whole point of wearing one.
