ARVIN, Calif. — A former Arvin animal control officer was arrested and is facing multiple felony charges for embezzlement and child pornography possession.
Clayton Nunley, who worked for the city of Arvin for about three years, was arrested on Sept. 4 and charged with three felonies: grand theft, embezzlement of more than $900, and possession of matter depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct.
"I've never been in trouble a day in my life, I've never been arrested, never done anything until this happened to me," Nunley said.
Court documents obtained by 23ABC reveal that alleged financial discrepancies were discovered by two Arvin Police Department senior officers while auditing the city's gas cards.
The documents state that several transactions were found linked to city credit cards used by Nunley, indicating he had been fueling his personal vehicle before and after work, and on his days off, when he did not have a take-home vehicle to fuel up.
According to the documents, the total amount of money used on fuel cards by Nunley was approximately $13,000 from August 2023 to August 2025.
During an interview, Nunley said he used the city credit card because he was in dire financial straits.
"My daughter she's going to be one year old this year. She was born with hypoplasia with her eyes, so her eyes bounce around and she could potentially go blind. I wasn't making enough money so I used the fuel card to get her back and forth to appointments," Nunley said.
A week before his arrest, surveillance footage obtained by his fiancée, Sherilyn Velez, shows the moment court documents say Arvin PD attempted to serve Nunley with an administrative leave document.
However, Nunley says that was not the case.
"They never told me nothing about administrative leave, they didn't tell me anything. They just randomly showed up at my house and basically said I could do the IA or quit. Those were the only options I had," Nunley said.
Nunley said this led him to resign.
When Nunley turned over his work phone, documents state numerous unauthorized uses of computer data were found, including text messages asking about sex-related services.
"I was just curious about how much people charge and things like that, but I never met up with anybody like that, I never even thought about meeting up with anybody," Nunley said.
Nunley went on to deny having a nude photo of a minor in his pictures and said other officers also had access to his device.
"They're always doing things and I explained that to them and I still got charged with it, unfortunately, so now I gotta try to fight that and I have my disabled daughter at home that needs me there for her appointments and I'm stuck here," Nunley said.
Nunley's arrest makes him the second Arvin employee to be arrested this year.
Nunley is scheduled to appear in court for a pre-preliminary hearing on Sept. 17.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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