On Monday, Mayor Bruce Harrell wrote a letter to the Seattle City Council informing them of his decision to fire former Seattle Police Department (SPD) Chief of Police Adrian Diaz. Harrell told the Council that an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report supported accusations that Diaz had a romantic relationship with an employee who he hired for a top position at SPD, and then continuously lied about the relationship.
In the letter—which Harrell also sent to the City’s police accountability departments, and City Attorney Ann Davison—the mayor said that the OIG report showed Diaz had a romantic relationship with the employee, who he hired through an informal process for a position that had not existed at SPD for sometime, promoted the employee, discussed his sexual relationship with her with other members of SPD, and when confronted about it, denied the relationship existed.
Harrell said in the letter that he discussed the findings of the report with Diaz on December 12. Diaz continued to deny a romantic relationship with the employee, but Harrell wrote that he found Diaz’s arguments unpersuasive against the evidence from the OIG: In addition to statements from other SPD employees who said Diaz had told them directly about his romantic relationship with the employee, the OIG investigation turned up a handwritten note from the employee that talked about their romantic relationship. A member of Diaz’s executive protection detail found the note while cleaning a car Diaz used, and the OIG brought in a handwriting expert who said, “it was highly probable,” the note was written by the employee.
Given the evidence a romantic relationship between Diaz and the employee had taken place, Harrell found that Diaz’s statements denying the relationship to the Mayor, the public, and SPD command staff violated the department’s policies around dishonesty.
Harrell also said that the OIG report found behavior that violated the department’s policies on professionalism, including making “crass and personal statements” about the employee while discussing the intimate relationship with other SPD employees. Harrell called the comments especially “egregious” because Diaz made these statements to his subordinates. Harrell further found Diaz violated policies around conflicts of interest and avoiding improper relationships between supervisors and their subordinates.
In the December 12 conversation with Harrell, Diaz maintained that he’d only ever had a platonic relationship with the employee. He also attacked the credibility of witnesses as well as the thoroughness and objectivity of the investigation into his behavior. In particular, Diaz said investigators never reviewed his personal phone records. However, Harrell found Diaz’s arguments unconvincing and pointed out that Diaz had failed to turn over his phone records when an OIG investigator requested them.
Diaz’s final departure from SPD comes after a drawn out process that started in May when Harrell demoted Diaz from his position as Chief of Police, leaving him in an amorphous special assignment while allowing him to keep his $370,000 salary. The demotion came amid a smattering of lawsuits accusing Diaz of a culture of racism and sexism at SPD, as well as rumors about his romantic relationship with a subordinate. About a month after his demotion, Diaz went on Jason Rantz’s conservative talk radio show and came out as gay, saying that, if he’d revealed his identity sooner, it might have helped him save his job. OIG opened an investigation into the hiring of the top aide around the time of Diaz stepping down as chief. Then in October, Diaz was placed on administrative leave. Shortly after that he filed a $10 million tort claim against the City.
An attorney for Diaz did not immediately return a request for comment. In an email to staff Tuesday, Interim Chief of Police Sue Rahr said Harrell had handled the termination of Diaz and she had no other information to share about it. SPD directed all requests for information about the firing to the Mayor’s Office.
In Harrell’s statement regarding the firing of Diaz, he acknowledged the lengthy investigation and called it “robust and thorough.” He added that he looked forward to announcing the City’s next police chief in the near future.
The correct thing for the Mayor to do; however, this is about as significant in the grand scheme of things as hush money payments in NY. It’s the public sector equivalent.
This sex scandal is a snooze.
The issue was the lie about it.
This case, as others do, shows how difficult it is to discipline public employees.
Seattle Public Schools goes through similar processes, and spends months and tens of thousands of dollars, to discipline teachers and other employees.
Evergreen State College and Washington State Ferries have faced similar difficulties disciplining with high-profile, and legally expensive, employee screw-ups, that resulted in deaths to members of the public.
Maybe the Trump administration will have a place for him, he would seem at home with a bunch of liars and criminals.
“Diaz said investigators never reviewed his personal phone records. However, Harrell found Diaz’s arguments unconvincing and pointed out that Diaz had failed to turn over his phone records when an OIG investigator requested them.”
Perfect illustration of how the culture makes cops think they’re immune from accountability.
Lying is wrong
Unless you are Trump
NotMyopic dear, I have been with the city for seventeen years. It’s not hard to fire employees. The problem usually lies with lazy or stupid managers who don’t understand the process or don’t want to bother with it. Also, you can be fired without cause within the first year of being in a position.
I have known people to be fired, with no union defense, for the following:
Theft (even petty theft)
Lying on timesheets
Having Sex on the job
Job abandonment
Testing hot on a drug test
General incompetence
Department heads, directors, and managers are let go all the time for no good reason. They serve at the behest of the mayor. Even if they have a contract, they can be fired. You often don’t hear about it, because in most cases no one cares.
Is “the employee” nonbinary or something? LOL. Why scrub out her gender?
Diaz has been a huge disappointment (really makes one long for Best, even given her faults). Let’s hope SPD can find competent leadership moving forward (it seems like forever since we’ve had a chief with broad support).