What To Know
- Legal experts are divided on whether the Guthrie family has grounds to sue the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
- Some experts argue that lawsuits against law enforcement for investigative errors are rarely successful.
- The Wall Street Journal reported alleged failures by the sheriff’s department, such as not securing the crime scene and delays in deploying a search plane.
If the Pima County Sheriff’s Department made mistakes in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, should the Guthrie family — including Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie — take Pima County to court?
Legal experts interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter had differing opinions. Mark Geragos, an attorney who represented Michael Jackson and Chris Brown, said it “wouldn’t surprise [him] in the least” if the Guthries took Pima County to court. Furthermore, he believes the family would have a case.
But Bryan Sullivan, a partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, thinks it’s “highly unlikely” a lawsuit over the sheriff’s department’s investigation would have merit. “It’s very, very difficult to sue law enforcement for failing to investigate, or basic negligence,” he told THR.
Sullivan added that if a ransom note turned out to be real and the sheriff’s department advised the Guthries against paying a ransom, the department would likely not be found at fault as it was “acting in good faith.”
“The police are exercising their best judgment,” Sullivan reasoned. “Sometimes they’re wrong.”
And legal analyst and On Patrol: Live host Dan Abrams told THR it’s “almost impossible” to sue a sheriff’s department “just for screwing up an investigation.”
The commentary comes after a Wall Street Journal report alleged that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and his department made missteps after Nancy disappeared from her Tucson-area home on February 1.
The WSJ report claimed, for instance, that county sheriff’s deputies “failed to seal off the property with police tape to protect sensitive crime-scene evidence, allowing reporters, livestreamers, and Amazon and pizza delivery drivers entry to the porch” where dried blood was found.
The newspaper also reported that a search plane was grounded for hours amid a search for a flight deputy to operate the camera systems— and that by the time the plane finally took off, it was too dark for its zoom-lens cameras to be of much use.
For his part, Nanos disputed those claims, according to The Wall Street Journal.