Democrat Chris Nanos is trying to get his old job back.
In order for Nanos to get a second chance to face-off against Republican Mark Napier, who defeated him in 2016 to become Pima County Sheriff, Nanos will need to beat a challenger Kevin E. Kubitskey, a former deputy and ex-Marine, in the Democratic primary.
Kubitskey last week found himself responding to sexual abuse allegations from his estranged adult daughter.
Nanos was interim sheriff from 2015 to 2016 after Clarence Dupnik, who held office from 1987 to 2015 retired. Before trying his hand in the department’s top post, he spent 41 years in law enforcement, starting as an officer with the El Paso Police Department .
Six years after becoming an officer, Nanos moved to Tucson in 1983 and joined the Pima County Sheriff’s Department as a correctional officer and worked his way up the ranks over a three-decade career.
Kubitskey retired from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in March, after 21 years with the department. Before then, he served in the Marines. Kubitskey also managed the Pima County Deputy Sheriff’s Association for four years during his time in the department. During that time he served for 16 years as Honor Guard, SWAT team member, trainer and detective, his website says.
Kubitskey also was involved, and cleared, in two officer-involved shootings while with the department. Nanos has not been involved in similar shootings.
Reform is top focus for Nanos
If elected, Nanos says he wants to focus on reform in several ways, from finding programs that can reduce the jail population, reduce arrests and do more to unite the department’s employees .
Nanos said the county needs to rethink bail requirements that leave nonviolent offenders in jail for minor crimes because they can’t afford to pay their way out. He also wants to shift more inmates not considered safety risks to qualify for work release from jail to house arrest, which would be less expensive.
A flash flood hit the Cañada del Oro Wash near Edwin Road in July 2020, during the burning of the massive Bighorn Fire in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The flash flood carried burned debris and runoff from the fire.
Nanos said he would look into other programs that could help reduce the jail population, like a deflection program similar to one used by the Tucson Police Department. In it, people suffering from opioid addiction are placed in treatment instead of jail.
Nanos says the department has been “fractured” by politics and bullying. He says Napier has punished employees who didn’t side with him in the previous election, calling the behavior a form of bullying. If elected, Nanos said he will try to talk to his employees who don’t support him politically and see what he can do to win them over. Nanos said he will learn to work with them.
“There may be nothing I can do to win them over other than just lead by example,” Nanos said. “If you’re doing the right things every time, not some of the time, every time, people will see that.”
FBI probe during Nanos’ days as leader
During the time Nanos spent leading the department, an FBI investigation found that from January 2011 through February 2016, several members of the department “conspired to circumvent the restrictions on the use of forfeiture funds” intended for the Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers. The FBI said roughly $500,000 was spent on items not related to crime fighting or prevention.
The federal funds were from the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.
The department’s then-second-in-command, Chris Radtke, pleaded guilty in February 2017 to three counts of misdemeanor theft of government property, according to Daily Star archives.
A Daily Star report from 2016 revealed Nanos requested more than $200,000 in transfers to the account the FBI was investigating at the time, but he did not face charges in the investigation.
After winning the election, Napier in 2017 requested that the state attorney general conduct a second investigation into the misuse of RICO funds. Napier said he received the attorney general’s report July 7 and it “does not find criminal culpability on the part of existing members of the Sheriff’s Department.”
Nanos says he inherited the investigation from his predecessor. His mistake, Nanos says, was defending the department when he shouldn’t have. The FBI’s findings don’t mean the organization is corrupt, or that he is, Nanos said.
“I defended them profusely. That’s my downfall,” Nanos said. “Do you know why? Because I’ve worked with these guys for 30-plus years. They were more than family to me. … I’m wrong, very naive. I defended them to the hilt.”
Kubitskey’s platform: Safety, integrity and diversity
Kubitskey is running for county sheriff with three main focuses: safety, integrity and diversity.
He says the number of deputies and correctional officers in the department is the lowest it has ever been and he plans to change that.
If elected, Kubitskey wants to focus on recruitment and retention and wants to boost diversity in recruiting.
He said with a full staff, employees can focus on their job and be more responsive to safety.
Kubitskey also said transparency would take on a different role if he were leading the department. Information the public deserves to know would be released in a timely manner, he said.
“It’s time that we start sharing with the public what exactly is going on, put it out there and not hide it, not sit on it,” Kubitskey said. “We have egg on our face, we need to let people know that we’ve got egg on our face.”
The department’s command staff should reflect the diversity of the community, Kubitskey said. He’s committed to appointing a woman as second in command, his candidate website says. “Kevin E. Kubitskey understands that cultural competency saves time and money while providing a safer community for both citizens and law enforcement,” the website says.
Kubitskey’s Daughter alleges abuse
Last Sunday, Kubistkey’s now-adult daughter, Makyla Cleary, said publicly on social media that he sexually, mentally and physically abused her when she was a girl.
Kubitskey denied the accusations on Monday and said the timing of the Cleary’s Facebook post — two weeks before the primary — shows it is politically motivated.
“My estranged daughter has mental health issues that my opponent Chris Nanos is now exploiting and trying to use to his political advantage,” Kubitskey wrote in a Facebook post Monday, responding to the accusations.
Court records show back-and-forth abuse accusations in custody battles involving Kubitskey and his ex-wife starting in 2008, when his daughter was 7 years old.
A 2011 temporary restraining order says, “The minor child may have been irreparably damaged by physical and emotional abuse that has occurred during father’s parenting time.”
Cleary says her father groomed her into thinking the way he acted around her and her relationship with him was normal. It took her years of therapy and medication for depression for her to work through the abuse she experienced and to realize what he did to her was not OK, she said.
“And then I just came out one day and saw campaign signs for ‘Kubitskey for sheriff’ and they’re all over,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s fair for me to have to leave my house and see my abuser’s name everywhere.”
Cleary says she decided to speak up because she believes it’s dangerous for Kubitskey to be sheriff.
“I just wanted my truth out there and I wanted to say what he did to me publicly so that everybody knows just the type of person they’re voting for,” Cleary said. “Just who they’re putting into power and his actual morals that he doesn’t display to the public, because he’s a completely different person behind closed doors than he is in public.”
