Seattle ignored key witness in Ex-police Chief Diaz scandal. Here's why
SEATTLE - Former Seattle Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell says she had information crucial to the city's investigation into rumors Ex-police Chief Adrian Diaz lied about a romantic relationship with a subordinate, but she was never contacted for an interview.
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Ex-Seattle officials say OIG botched Chief Diaz, Jamie Tompkins affair probe
Two former Seattle city officials claim the OIG mishandled its investigation of rumors that Ex-police Chief Adrian Diaz was sleeping with his Chief of Staff, Jamie Tompkins.
Chief of staff role was jointly created
What we know:
Diaz was fired after the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found he invented a special "Chief of Staff" job for his alleged mistress Jamie Tompkins, and then tried to cover it up. But Harrell — who was Diaz’s direct supervisor at the time — says he didn’t come up with the Chief of Staff position on his own; they developed it together.
"One element of the rumor that could be debunked was that Diaz created the position for Tompkins," Harrell said. "The Chief of Staff role, as well as other organizational restructurings in the department, were part of ongoing discussions Diaz and I had been having about the future of SPD [and] which roles required sworn law enforcement, and which roles could be fulfilled with skilled civilian labor. Given the focus on future recruitment, we prioritized trying to find someone for the Chief of Staff role that could help tell the story of SPD to open the pipeline for new recruits."
Harrell — who is also Mayor Bruce Harrell’s niece — declined an on-camera interview with FOX 13 Seattle, but did provide written statements in response to FOX 13 Seattle's questions about her first-hand knowledge of Tompkins’ hiring, including whether the city considered other candidates for the Seattle Police Department chief of staff role.
Harrell told FOX 13 Seattle that Tompkins was not their first choice for the job.
"We had another strong candidate in mind for the Chief of Staff position that Diaz tried to bring on board for a few months," Harrell said. "Unfortunately, that candidate wasn’t ready to leave their current role for this new opportunity, and we needed to keep moving forward. Tompkins was an exceptionally talented media mind, so we were fortunate to be able to bring her expertise to the table at a critical time."
Tompkins joined SPD after years of working as a successful broadcast journalist in Seattle, including evening news anchor at FOX 13 Seattle.
She and Diaz have both strenuously denied having a sexual relationship. But even before her first day at SPD, Tompkins claims SPD employees were spreading rumors that she only got the chief of staff position because she was having sex with Diaz. (Tompkins sent a demand letter to the City of Seattle seeking $3 million in damages for failing to stop the whisper campaign that’s destroyed her career.)
Key witness was never contacted during OIG investigation
Dig deeper:
Central to Tompkins’ claims is her allegation that OIG deliberately ignored any information that ran counter to the narrative she slept her way onto the SPD payroll.
"Nothing that was ever provided would ever be enough evidence, because they didn't want to speak to any of the witnesses that we suggested," Tompkins told FOX 13 Seattle in an exclusive one-on-one interview. "All of those people were ignored from the investigation."
That included Harrell, identified by Tompkins in a Nov. 11, 2024, email sent directly to Seattle’s Inspector General Lisa Judge and OIG investigator Shayda Le, with the subject line: new information.
The email read:
Harrell told FOX 13 Seattle she was never contacted by Judge or Investigator Le. But if OIG had requested an interview, she would have fully cooperated.
"I would have answered honestly any questions the investigators would have had about what I knew," Harrell said. "Understanding the seriousness of the allegations, I would have absolutely made myself available to support an investigation."
FOX 13 Seattle asked Investigator Le and Inspector General Judge to respond to the claims they passed up the chance to interview Harrell despite her potential significance to the Diaz investigation, but neither responded at the time of publication.
Investigator Le did admit to generally skipping interviews for the defense in her final report to OIG, including "several of the people Mr. Diaz suggested."
As for her reason, she said "… it is difficult to conduct interviews for the express purpose of proving a negative … as a result, I did not pursue interviews with people who were noted for the purpose of offering general belief or personal opinion that a romantic or intimate relationship did not take place."
But Tompkins says that only shows that the OIG investigation was a set-up from the start.
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Jamie Tompkins claims Seattle police scandal was a setup. Here’s why
Tompkins believes she was "collateral damage" in a conspiracy to remove Adrian Diaz as chief.
"I absolutely, 100% believe [the investigators] had a preconceived outcome," Tompkins told FOX 13 Seattle.
OIG has also been accused of leaking sensitive information about the Diaz/Tompkins case to local media; the agency’s former records manager Lacey Gray has filed a multi-million dollar whistleblower lawsuit, claiming Judge fired her after she flagged the potential breach of employee confidentiality rules.
Rumors may have originated inside the Mayor’s Office
What they're saying:
Harrell said the whisper campaign to discredit Diaz and Tompkins may go even higher up in city government.
She told FOX 13 Seattle that she believes someone close to the mayor helped spread the initial allegations of an affair.
"I was aware that rumors had started prior to Jamie Tompkins’ onboarding [at SPD], as I had been approached by media trying to verify the rumors with me as Diaz’s direct supervisor. At least one of those media sources told me they received the rumor from a senior staffer in the Mayor’s Office," Harrell recalled. "As I had heard another false rumor directly from a senior staff member regarding Diaz’s personal affairs a few months prior, I was frustrated that this was an ongoing topic of conversation, especially since many of the elements of the rumor could be easily debunked."
FOX 13 Seattle asked Mayor Harrell’s office to respond to Monisha Harrell’s allegations. Jamie Housen, a spokesperson for the mayor, emailed FOX 13 Seattle the following statement: "Our understanding is that Monisha Harrell alleged that this ‘senior official’ created the rumor, and did not only allege that he spread it. However, contemporaneous reporting from the time the rumors surfaced refutes these claims and shows that the senior official only learned about the rumor from a reporter. Diaz was subsequently asked about the rumor, which he denied. Our office took Diaz at his word until reviewing the conclusions of the OIG independent investigation more than a year later."
Like Tompkins, Diaz has threatened to sue the city of Seattle, claiming he was harassed out of his job. He is seeking $10 million in damages. The city agreed to enter mediation over both their claims. As part of any settlement, Diaz and Tompkins have asked for an independent criminal investigation into the city’s handling of their case.
The Source: Information in this story came from Ex-Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell, Ex-Chief of Staff Jamie Tompkins and FOX 13 Seattle original reporting.
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