Holly MatkinRichmond, CA – A request for a two-year restraining order against Richmond Police Chief Bisa French and her husband, Oakland Police Sergeant Lee French, was granted by a judge on Monday.
Chief French and Sgt. French’s 18-year-old daughter, who filed the petition for the restraining order, claimed the couple threatened to kill her and her 34-year-old boyfriend, Joe Goldman, after he was arrested on charges of pimping and pandering in Alameda County earlier this month, KTVU reported.
Goldman, who also goes by the name of Oho McNair, had actually been pimping their daughter as a sex worker, according to Chief French and Sgt. French.
Chief French said Goldman manipulated their daughter into prostitution, KTVU reported.
According to court documents, the couple’s daughter stayed with Goldman at Oakland-area motels frequented by sex workers and was prostituted by him within Oakland city limits, KTVU reported.
Goldman was released from jail after posting $100,000 bail and was ordered to stay away from Chief French’s daughter.
The daughter claimed Chief French and Sgt. French pinned her down using “police holds” during an argument in September, KTVU reported.
She further alleged her parents have threatened to kill her and Goldman.
An internal investigation was opened at the Oakland Police Department (OPD) after Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams contacted Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong about the allegations.
The City of Richmond confirmed on Oct. 14 that Chief French had been placed on paid leave due to the ongoing situation, KTVU reported.
Her husband, Oakland Police Sergeant Lee French, has also been placed on leave by his department, according to KPIX.
According to the City of Richmond, Chief French was placed on paid leave due to “an unfolding family situation,” KGO reported.
“It’s imperative that we let the investigations play out without distraction and in accordance with established protocols that assure an objective assessment of the facts,” the city manager told the news outlet earlier this month.
During the court hearing on Monday, Chief French and Sgt. French voluntarily agreed they would stay away from their daughter and that they will not contact her, KTVU reported.
Their daughter is still free to contact them if she chooses to do so, according to the news outlet.
The Frenches’ attorney, Michael Rains, told KTVU the couple “wanted nothing other than to get (their family member) back and get her away from this despicable human being and have made lawful efforts to achieve that.”
“They had gone to this guy’s mother and talked to her and tried to get his mom to just say, ‘look, would you tell your son to please give us our daughter back? That’s all we want, we want our daughter back,’” Rains told KGO. “As a result of that conversation, his parents, the mom, made complaints that they threatened to do something to the son.”
Rains noted the Frenches’ daughter, who graduated from high school Magna Cum Laude, has been turned against her own family due to Goldman’s manipulation, KGO reported.
Chief French is “a mother who is worried about her daughter and what’s happened to her,” he added. “She’s not sitting there fretting over, ‘what does this mean for my job, what does this mean for my career?’ That’s the least of her concerns. Her concerns are her daughter.”
