Left to right: Pinal County Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh [Pinal County] and chief of staff for the Pinal County Attorney’s Office Garland Shreves. /www.researchforlife.org
By Justin Griffin | PinalCentral
Garland Shreves, chief of staff for the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, notified Pinal County on Wednesday morning he would file a $5 million lawsuit against it for allegedly false and defamatory statements made by Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh. Starting in June, Cavanaugh will serve as Maricopa’s representative on the Pinal County Board of Supervisors after the city was moved to District 1 in a realignment last month.
In a Notice of Claim, announced by Shreves during the public comment period of Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, he alleges in mid-October 2021 Cavanaugh raised concerns that Shreves had hired Amanda Stanford for the position of county finance director in exchange for sex. InMaricopa obtained a copy of the claim.
Shreves told the supervisors Stanford was filing her own claim for $8 million.
“When a publicly-elected county supervisor makes wild allegations without any accountability,” Shreves said, “I have no recourse as an employee, nor does Ms. Stanford…”
The Shreves complaint alleges Cavanaugh brought his concerns to Deputy County Manager Mary Ellen Shepherd, who inquired about it with Shreves’s supervisor, County Attorney Kent Volkmer. Volkmer, in turn, interviewed Shreves about the accusations. Volkmer reported back to Shepherd and Cavanaugh that due to a lack of evidence, he could not substantiate Cavanaugh’s claims.
The complaint contends Cavanaugh further pursued the accusations and claimed several witnesses had come forward to support his claims that Shreves was engaged in sexual misconduct with Stanford, a subordinate. Two of the witnesses, when contacted, denied they had ever made such statements to Cavanaugh. The third witness was an anonymous person who has yet to be identified.
