After only a little over a year serving officially as Richmond’s Police Chief, Bisa French is now on administrative leave after a case involving her daughter resulted in accusations of threats.
The investigation into her 18-year-old daughter spans three East Bay police departments, according to reporting by KGO.
French and her husband, a sergeant with the Oakland Police Department, Lee French, are alleging that their daughter is being coerced into sex work by 34-year-old Joe Goldman, according to their attorney, Michael Rains.
Sgt. Lee French has also been placed on leave regarding the investigation.
The investigation centers on an incident at Goldman's mother's home in Vallejo. In an interview with KGO, Rains said Vallejo police, "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.' As a result of that conversation, his parents, the mom, made complaints that they threatened to do something to the son."
Last week, French's daughter filed for a restraining order against her parents, citing death threats they made against her and accusations of "pinning her down," according to reporting by the Bay Area News Group.
Although the restraining order wasn’t approved, Goldman was arrested the same day in Richmond by U.S. Marshalls. He was charged with "pimping and pandering" the teenager, KGO reported.
French feels Goldman has alienated her from her daughter, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from high school, Rains told KGO.
"My discussions with her have been, you know, those of a mother who is worried about her daughter and what's happened to her," he said. "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."
Richmond has acknowledged French’s leave is due to "an unfolding family situation," KGO reported. The city manager added in a statement, "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."
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