Pinal Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh makes huge $400K claim against Pinal County Elections, Board

VIA SBINSIDER EXCLUSIVE REPORTING| March 29th, 2024

In an incredible display of hubris, Pinal County Supervisor, (District 1) Kevin Cavanaugh, presented a damage claim to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors (BOS) on March 18th. A claim is the first step in a legal process whereby if the BOS does not settle with Cavanaugh, he can then proceed to using the courts to seek a remedy. Also, Cavanaugh made a separate claim against Dana Lewis for defamation, allegedly for making remarks to the staff at the elections department.

The claim also asked for the removal of Lewis as Elections Director.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Cavanaugh was a recent speaker at the SaddleBrooke Republican Club, where he was expected to promote about his candidacy for County Sheriff. Instead, he used his allotted 3 minutes to promote his new book, leaving the 75 or so attendees very confused.

Thursday, March 28th, the BOS met in a special session to consider their response to the claim.

The allegation is contained in a Jan. 22 email to one of Cavanaugh’s office employees, which says Lewis’s use of a white noise machine “is very well known.” The email was from a person who sent several emails in December and January to Cavanaugh or his staff identifying him- or herself only as “John Doe.”

SBINSIDER will post an update to this story when the BOS makes it decision on Cavanaugh’s claim.

Cavanaugh has lost a lawsuit previously against him by several employees of  Pinal County and had to pay a fine:

Per the Arizona Republic: 

Two Pinal County employees will receive $40,000 after county officials resolved a lawsuit accusing a county supervisor of spreading retaliatory, false rumors.

The settlement comes months after an independent investigation commissioned by the county found that Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh made complaints of employee quid pro quo in the Pinal County Attorney’s Office last year without any factual basis.

The legal drama began in April when two Attorney’s Office employees, Chief of Staff Garland Shreves and Finance Manager Amanda Stanford, sued Cavanaugh. They alleged he had started a rumor that Shreves had hired Stanford in exchange for sexual favors after Shreves refused a job offer from Cavanaugh.

Now, Cavanaugh will pay $20,000 out of his personal bank account to settle the case, per a settlement agreement obtained by The Arizona Republic. The Arizona Counties Insurance Pool will pay an additional $20,000 on behalf of Pinal County. The parties will pay their own attorney’s fees and costs.

The county racked up a total of $165,000 litigating the case. Of that, the county directly paid $75,000, and the insurance pool covered the remaining $90,000, which includes the $20,000 settlement on the county’s behalf.

The settlement also stipulates that Cavanaugh must release a press statement apologizing for “any harm caused” and that all parties must “acknowledge that they are glad that the matter has been resolved.”

Cavanaugh did not respond to a request for comment, and the press release required by the settlement agreement was not immediately available. He previously told The Republic in a phone interview that the lawsuit’s claims were “clearly bogus,” but he declined to answer specific questions about the case.

Shreves said the case exposed Cavanaugh as “a pathological liar.” He said he’s happy the case is behind him but that its impact will stick with him “for a long, long time.”

“This was never about being punitive to the taxpayers,” Shreves said. “It was about holding (Cavanaugh) accountable, probably for the first time in his life, for how he would just recklessly make wild allegations against people.”