An investigation that preceded last month's resignation of Cockrell Hill Police Chief Catherine Smit focused on whether she gave special treatment to a would-be officer who failed to disclose four misdemeanor arrests on his job application.

The officer, Troy Wayne Willmon, is a relative of a man Ms. Smit had dated, according to documents released in response to a public-records request.

City officials have refused to speak about the internal investigation.

Police investigators concluded that Mr. Willmon received special consideration as he was being interviewed in December 2006, including not being asked scenario-based questions that the records say are standard to the department's hiring process.

The investigators also noted that Ms. Smit was responsible for Mr. Willmon's background check and for the decision to hire him.

Mr. Willmon's arrests were for minor charges in 1990 and 1991, including a theft of less than $20, to which he pleaded no contest and was found guilty, the records say. Other charges were dropped.

Mr. Willmon, 34, told investigators he thought the arrests had been expunged and that he was not required to disclose them on his application.

He has resigned since the investigation and could not be reached for comment Monday.

Ms. Smit, who was also recently a Dallas County sheriff's candidate, was placed on paid administrative leave from April 9 to 14. She submitted her resignation April 18.

Ms. Smit and her attorney on Monday said she resigned after the April investigation because she felt it was time to move on.

They pointed out that the investigation did not attribute any policy violations to her.

She let Mr. Willmon forgo the scenario-based questions because he was already an experienced police officer, and that is not unusual, her attorney said. And Ms. Smit said she had not been aware of his arrest history.

"All it makes it look like is that there was some kind of a special consideration given," she said, "and there was none."