Hayward Police Chief Diane Stuart has retired effective immediately, according to a joint statement from Stuart and Hayward City Manager Kelly McAdoo issued Wednesday.
Though she technically still held her position, Stuart has not been in charge of the Police Department since Aug. 29, when McAdoo announced she had placed the former chief on administrative leave and named an acting replacement.
McAdoo and other city officials have never explained why Stuart was placed on leave, citing state law privacy protections for police officers. Stuart's formal departure from the Police Department comes as the city prepares its response to a lawsuit filed by KQED on Nov. 30 seeking the release of public records potentially related to her removal.
The city's joint statement refers to an anonymous letter that initiated an internal investigation into the chief, which the city has said repeatedly is near completion. The Mercury News appears to have received a copy of the same letter, and the newspaper reported that Diane Stuart allegedly "traded favors" with Clark D. Stuart II, who the chief appears to have married in late spring.
The first indication of Clark Stuart's dealings with Hayward occurred in December 2011. Hayward officials signed a contract granting the Police Department access to a proprietary "sexual exploitation network analysis tool" operated by Clark Stuart's company, Global Trident II. Clark Stuart and his Global Trident companies were prominently affiliated with a now-shuttered national nonprofit, Stop Child Trafficking Now, which came under scrutiny for massive fundraising and large payments to Stuart's private companies, with few results.