Navajo Police Chief Daryl Noon resigns

Posted by Krista Allen | Jun 8, 2024 | News |

SEDONA, Ariz.

Navajo Nation Police Chief Daryl Noon has resigned, but it was “forced.”

Noon resigned on Thursday, June 6, 2024, according to Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton, the Law and Order Committee chair, who was informed by Michael Anderson, the Division of Public Safety executive director.

Charles-Newton said she was caught off guard. “It was a big surprise,” she said, adding that she was informed that President Buu Nygren’s staff forced Noon to resign.

Noon met with Anderson, Patrick Sandoval, Nygren’s chief of staff, and another person and asked why he was being fired. His request was denied when he asked if he could be demoted instead.

“What I was told was he got called into the office, and they told him that he was not what the (Nygren) Administration needed and they were going to fire him,” Charles-Newton said. “But they gave him the option of resigning. And he resigned.”

Nygren wasn’t in the room. “My reaction to that was, ‘You’re the president. If you’re gonna let the chief of police go, I would think that you would be the one to do it (termination), not your chief of staff.’”

Charles-Newton announced Noon’s resignation today, June 8, at the Eastern Navajo Agency Council Meeting in Crownpoint, where Sandoval allegedly stated that Charles-Newton is “lying” about Noon’s resignation.

Noon was called later to meet with the Nygren Administration on Monday to discuss a new position for him.

“Number one, why were we not given a heads-up?” Charles-Newton asks. “If it was a resignation for a good reason, a press release would have came out, or it would have been announced.

“Why wasn’t this announced by the (Nygren) Administration?” she added. “Working together and helping each other starts with communication. And we (25thNavajo Nation Council) don’t get no communication from the Nygren Administration.”

Calls to Nygren’s spokesman, George Hardeen, for comment went unanswered Saturday evening.

Noon was sworn in as police chief on Jan. 3, 2022, during a virtual ceremony in Tsébigháhoodzání.

Noon is Honágháahnii and born for Bilagáana. His maternal grandfather is Táchii’nii, and his paternal grandfather is Béésh Bich’ahii.