It has now been weeks without any meaningful public updates on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Arizona journalist and "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 53 days, and the lack of progress on the investigation has forced Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos into a white-hot spotlight.
His team’s investigation has faced withering criticism, from local outlets all the way to national tabloids like the New York Post, which recently published photos of Nanos leaving the gym, seeming to suggest he was spending valuable time away from the case.
The coverage reflects a growing conversation about whether Nanos is up to the task — not just of finding Nancy Guthrie but of serving as sheriff in general.
Tucson Agenda reporter Joe Ferguson has been covering the scrutiny of Sheriff Nanos, and he joined The Show.
Full conversation
SAM DINGMAN: Joe, good morning.
JOE FERGUSON: Good morning. Thanks for having me on.
DINGMAN: Thank you for being here. Let's start with the latest news on this. On Tuesday, the Democratically controlled Pima County Board of Supervisors met, and they spoke about Sheriff Nanos. What came out of that meeting?
FERGUSON: They came out of that meeting with a universal decision to bring him back a week from now with questions about his performance.
They want to ask him about some issues with him being hired 40 years ago and whether he misled people in terms of his job performance in El Paso. And so they are working on questions that could lead to him being dismissed under an old territorial law.
DINGMAN: And can you remind us here, Joe, what are these questions about his background? A lot of this came to light in a recent investigative piece by the Arizona Republic, if I'm not mistaken.
FERGUSON: Yep, you got that right. They say that Nanos lied about his performance in El Paso, where he resigned in lieu of termination in his applications for his job as a correctional officer and then again later as a deputy. He put down other reasons for why he left El Paso, which don't fit the narrative of what El Paso had told the Arizona Republic two weeks ago.
And so they want answers. And there's at least one member of the Board of Supervisors, Matt Heinz, who thinks that this is tantamount to fraud.
DINGMAN: Yes. And you, in your reporting on this, talked about the, shall we say, frosty relationship between Nanos and Heinz. There seems to be no love lost there.
FERGUSON: No. It's been going on for quite some time. Heinz has been critical of Nanos for the handling of a internal investigation where a deputy was raped at a holiday party and has continued to push for a larger investigation into that matter. He doesn't trust that Nanos handled that case correctly and wanted to get the AG involved.
So that's been going on for more than two years now.
DINGMAN: Have we heard a response from Sheriff Nanos about Tuesday's meeting?
FERGUSON: Yeah, I spoke to Sheriff Nanos briefly last night. He said that he welcomes the conversation and he will be happy to talk about his past with the Board of Supervisors at a future meeting.
DINGMAN: Well, Joe, of course this is not the only challenge to his position that Nanos is facing. There is also a recall effort brewing. Tell us about that.
FERGUSON: So a Republican who is running for Congress in CD7 has launched a recall effort. He has gotten some support from people who have not liked Nanos, including Democrats. And he is trying to gather approximately ... 12,000 signatures to get this recall effort on the ballot.
We'll see what happens. It's been quite some time since there's been a successful recall here in Pima County.
DINGMAN: Yes. I believe you wrote in one of your pieces about this it hasn't happened since the Clinton era, correct?
FERGUSON: That's correct. A assessor by the name of Alan Lang, who had a very colorful history here in Pima County, was the last successful recall.
DINGMAN: There is also, just to add to the pile, an upcoming meeting of the Pima County Democratic Party. Their executive committee is going to be getting together. They are planning to talk about Nanos on the agenda as well, right?
FERGUSON: That's correct. And last time we've seen an effort to censure a Democrat here in Pima County was an unsuccessful attempt to censure Kyrsten Sinema when she was still a House member.
DINGMAN: So tell me if you agree here, Joe. But it seems like a lot of this scrutiny, as you mentioned, it's long standing. But the scrutiny has been intensified by Nanos' communication style regarding the Guthrie case.
And last Friday, he went on Bill Buckmaster's radio show, faced some tough questions from both Buckmaster and Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Stellar. I wanted to play, if I could, a quick clip from that interview.
At one point, Buckmaster asks Nanos what it's like for him to face all this PR criticism.
CHRIS NANOS: I'm glad they throw rocks at me, not my team. Just do it. That's OK. I'll be, maybe I made a mistake. I told them I'll be your bad guy. I'll be your villain. Boy, they took that literally.
DINGMAN: So, Joe, you wrote about this moment from Nanos in one of your pieces on this. What did you make of this interview?
FERGUSON: I think that Nanos is very much open to the idea that as an elected official and as a member of law enforcement that there's going to be public criticism of whatever he does and whatever his team does. And so he is trying to make sure that the concerns about the Guthrie case fall on his shoulders rather than the people that work underneath him.
He's got 1,500 employees or so, and he wants to make sure that they don't get caught up in what is a very difficult case that hasn't moved, as you said, in the intro, in weeks.
DINGMAN: Since you mentioned the folks working under Nanos, what do we know about the level of confidence amongst the deputies in the Sheriff's Department?
FERGUSON: The deputies organization had a vote of no confidence for Nanos recently, and that was discussed at yesterday's meeting. But this isn't the first time they've taken such a vote and had a similar outcome.
DINGMAN: So in just about 20 seconds left here, Joe, the "Today" show aired a clip from a new interview with Savannah Guthrie this morning. It sounds like we're going to get her take on how the investigation has gone in the coming days. A lot of pressure gathering.
What is your level of confidence in the sheriff's ability to survive this?
FERGUSON: It's really hard to say. This is an unprecedented kind of assault on the sheriff that we haven't seen in my entire adult life living here in Tucson. So this is a new kind of fight that we haven't seen before. And so it's hard to say what's going to happen next. But I do think we're going to take cues from the Board of Supervisors and what they do in approximately four weeks.
-
Researchers running a scientific experiment to make the largest 3D map of the universe finished the planned survey Tuesday night, observing 47 million galaxies and black holes. That went well beyond the original goal. -
The Tucson Police Department recently encrypted its radio communications, effectively blocking the public from listening. -
A Pima County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit between the opponents of Project Blue – a developing data center outside of Tucson – and Pima County and its Planning and Zoning Commission. -
Mayor Regina Romero and the City Council set out to draft the proposal last year — after water needs from the Project Blue data center project generated intense public backlash. -
Mayor Regina Romero and City Council members asked city officials to put together a draft amendment after voting to block Project Blue last year. That’s the data center proposed for a 290-acre stretch of Tucson’s southeast side that would have used millions of gallons of city water.
