Chief diaz gay
'Beauty and the chief.' How a covert romance ended former Seattle Police Principal Diaz's career
Chief Adrian Diaz, wearing a black cowboy hat, beamed from atop a blue roan horse named Blucher. He was at the Seattle police barn, being interviewed by a TV journalist.
“You learn a lotta lessons on a horse?” asked the journalist, Jamie Tompkins of FOX 13 in Seattle.
“You learn a lotta lessons,” Diaz said. “They’re always trying to search for peace.”
In the two years since that interview, there has been little harmony for Diaz.
Friendship blossomed between Diaz and Tompkins on that late summer afternoon back in 2022, which developed into a romance, according to an enquiry released Tuesday by the Office of Inspector General. Ten months after that horseback interview, he hired Tompkins be his chief of staff, a position he created, at a salary of $163,900. Diaz did not post the job or interview other candidates.
Once an up-and-comer at Seattle Police, Diaz, appointed by Mayor Bruce Harrell, would soon fall from grace. It began with a rumor that Tompkins was his paramour, which Diaz dismissed as tawdry gossip, a conspiracy ginned up by his detractors.
RELATED:Seattl We need your serve offsetting the amount of defending ourselves against the former police chief’s lawsuit threat. By Erica C. Barnett Former Seattle police chief Adrian Diaz, who was removed from his position earlier this year, threatened to sue PubliCola, and me personally, unless we removed a display describing the interview he did with conservative talk demonstrate host Jason Rantz. In that interview, Diaz came out as gay and called the allegations in a complaint filed by several women, which included sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, “absurd.” (Since Diaz’ interview, four of the women have filed a lawsuit against the city and SPD.) In his threat against PubliCola, Diaz claimed we had defamed him by suggesting that he considered being gay a defense against claims that he harassed or made sexual overtures to women. Many other observers, including KIRO radio, the Seattle Times, and the South Seattle Emerald, had a similar perception of Diaz’ interview, but as far as we were able to ascertain by speaking with other outlets, PubliCola was the only publication the former chief singled out for an explicit lawsuit threat. Because ou Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has officially fired former police chief Adrian Diaz, according to an email obtained Tuesday morning by KUOW. In a letter to Seattle City Council, Harrell wrote that Diaz had "an intimate or romantic relationship" with a former employee, and that he had hired and directly supervised that employee. The letter also says that the employee wrote a handwritten card to Diaz "that indicates a romantic or intimate relationship took place." Diaz also talked to colleagues about "intimate interactions" with the employee. Diaz’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment by publication time. Diaz was demoted in May. In June, Diaz told KTTH’s Jason Rantz that he was "a gay Latino man." Diaz was placed on paid administrative leave in October. Diaz hired the woman in May 2023, after rumors had started circulating about their relationship. Diaz vehemently denied the affair rumors to KUOW via his personal attorney Ted Buck. “Are they amorous friends? No, they're not,” Buck said. “Has Adrian helped her put dimmer switches on some of her electrical outlets because that's what he does? Yeah Adrian Diaz, a dedicated public servant with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) for nearly three decades, was thrust into a whirlwind of controversy that cost him his role as police chief. Accusations of “predatory behavior” and “grooming” by female officers have painted Diaz, who is married with three children, as a villain. One female officer claimed he tried to step in on her getting undressed between shifts. There was even a rumor promulgated by a local media outlet that Diaz was sleeping with his chief of staff. But the reality is far more complex and heartbreaking. His innocence, overshadowed by these damning allegations of predatory behavior, remained hidden behind a secret he wasn’t ready to share. Adrian Diaz is gay and has struggled privately with his identity for the last several years. “It’s a story that it’s struggled with, over the last four years, that I’m a gay Latino man,” Diaz, through tears, exclusively told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “You comprehend, it doesn’t bother me. It’s more of Seattle mayor fires former Police Leader Adrian Diaz, cites affair
Rantz Exclusive: Former Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz announces he’s gay