Lawyers for Carlos Palazuelos and Daniel Maddox, along with the mother of one of the men, have filed a notice of claim against the Pima County sheriff and a detective, setting up a possible civil lawsuit over the Feb. 10 detentions tied to the search for Nancy Guthrie.
The notice, issued Monday, alleges wrongful arrest, property damage and emotional harm. It says Palazuelos was detained for questioning and later released without charges, while Maddox was handcuffed at the home that was searched and held for several hours. The claim seeks $2.5 million to settle the allegations involving Palazuelos.
That filing matters now because a notice of claim is the step that comes before a lawsuit in Arizona. It turns a police operation into a legal fight and puts a dollar amount on what the men say happened when deputies moved into a home in Rio Rico during the search for the person who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie earlier that month.
The notice says deputies arrested Palazuelos at gunpoint and held him without probable cause for about seven to eight hours. It also says the arrest was carried out in public, that his home was ransacked and that officials refused to retract public statements suggesting he was being questioned in connection with the case. In the same filing, the lawyers say Maddox was confronted by men in military gear, ordered to the floor after a loud noise and held under guard by a van for hours.
That account runs headlong into what Chris Nanos has said publicly. In an interview Friday on NBC News' Stay Tuned Now, he said a judge signed off on the search warrant and that investigators built a case from evidence and tips before serving the warrant, speaking with the people involved and continuing the investigation. The sheriff's department said it does not comment on pending litigation, and Nanos has said in multiple interviews that no one has been cleared.
The case is still moving in two directions at once: the sheriff says the investigation is active, while the notice says Palazuelos had no involvement and was held without probable cause. What comes next is not a court date but a choice — whether the county answers the claim, settles it or forces the men to take the next step themselves.
