The badge of the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors is once again asking the Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate the conduct of the Sheriff’s department.
In 2024, Mayes's office found Pima County Sheriff’s Department leadership may have violated four of its own policies the night a deputy was assaulted by her supervisor, former Sergeant Ricardo Garcia.
But, investigators also wrote that new information would likely be available after an internal investigation was done, and that they would “welcome the opportunity to review the IA investigation after it is completed by the Sheriff’s Department should this Board continue to have concerns.”
Internal Affairs, or IA, is the department responsible for investigating law enforcement’s own conduct.
“This is simply saying, thank you very much, reminding them of their communication with us in 2024 and asking that they move forward with that,” said County Administrator Jan Lesher at the June 3 Board meeting.
Even though the assault happened in late 2022, the IA investigation was delayed by Sheriff Chris Nanos, who said the department needed to wait until after criminal proceedings. The backlash from that decision caused the initial Attorney General investigation, put a spotlight on tensions within the department, and contributed to a vote of no confidence in the Sheriff by a deputy’s union in early 2024.
According to county correspondence, the IA investigation is now complete. But retired deputy Chris Conniff raised new concerns that it was done improperly.
“The command staff took their swords and stuck them in the victim's back. Their answer was to have two bureau chiefs investigate two other bureau chiefs in an IA investigation,” he said at the call to the audience.
Board Chair Rex Scott requested a summary of the IA investigation from Nanos, and said he and the Supervisors received over 100 pages of documents late Friday afternoon in response. Lesher said those documents needed to be processed and redacted before being released to the public, but the letter was to be sent to the Attorney General by end of business on June 3.
Supervisor Matt Heinz added the request to the agenda, and said he was concerned about the amount of time that had passed since the incident.
“This is no longer 18 months ago, and this situation has resulted in a criminal case, a criminal conviction. So it is important that we look into this and make sure that everything is proper here,” he said.
Garcia is currently serving a year in jail after being found guilty of multiple counts of attempted sexual assault and sexual abuse last year. Multiple witnesses in the trial testified about a culture of fear and retaliation within the department.
In November 2024, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously for the AG’s office to criminally investigate Nanos for potential election interference, after a controversial decision to place his political opponent and an outspoken union leader on administrative leave two weeks before the 2024 election.
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