The estranged adult daughter of Pima County Sheriff candidate Kevin E. Kubitskey said on social media this weekend that he had abused her sexually, physically and mentally when she was a girl.
Makyla Cleary said in a Facebook post Sunday that Kubitskey abused her between the time she was 6 to 12 years old and that he is unsuited to be the county’s top law enforcement officer.
Kubitskey denied the accusations on Monday and said the timing of the Facebook post — two weeks before the primary — shows it is politically motivated.
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. The initial allegation was physical abuse by another family member, a minor at the time.
After years of custody battles, the girl’s mother filed a temporary order against Kubitskey, asking a judge to suspend his parenting time while CPS investigated the daughter’s abuse claims. 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.”
By 2013, court records show Kubitskey and the mother had agreed that he would no longer contact his daughter unless the daughter initiated it.
Kubitskey said his Democratic opponent in the primary, Chris Nanos, was the first to share the daughter’s post. Facebook time stamps show the "Chris Nanos for Sheriff" page shared the post more than an hour after it was published. It was posted minutes after Kubitskey ended a Zoom candidate forum with Nanos, which his ex-wife was a part of, he said.
Kubitskey said Nanos had intimate knowledge of the “troubled custodial relationship” he and his ex-wife had.
“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.
Nanos said he doesn’t know the family.
He said he’s worked on child abuse cases for more than six years with the sheriff’s department and children don’t make up stories about abuse, especially when it comes to allegations against people they love.
“It is so hard for these little ones to come forward, and this young lady has come forward as a young lady,” Nanos said. “I don’t know her, I don’t know anything about his family.”
