In a case that has ensnared three police departments across the Bay Area, the Richmond police chief is on leave after she and her husband, an Oakland police sergeant, were accused of abuse by a family member who they claim is being manipulated by her pimp.
Richmond police Chief Bisa French has been placed on administrative leave following several incidents involving the close family member, an 18-year-old woman, who has accused French and police Sgt. Lee French of attacking her and threatening to kill her and the man she insists is her partner. The partner, 34-year-old Napa resident Joe Goldman, was charged Wednesday with pimping the French’s family member. Lee French is also on personal leave from OPD.
Meanwhile, police in Vallejo are investigating an incident involving French and her husband at Goldman’s mother’s home there. And Oakland’s internal affairs department has launched an investigation after Vallejo police Chief Shawny Williams tipped off Oakland police chief LeRonne Armstrong about the incident.
Court records and interviews with authorities give differing accounts of the incidents involving the Frenches, their family member and Goldman. In a restraining order request, the family member claims that during an altercation at their home on Sep. 21, Bisa and Lee French used “police holds” to pin the family member down during an argument and made repeated death threats against her and Goldman.
“I am worried (Bisa and Lee French) will go through with the killings,” the family member wrote in her restraining order request. She added that the Frenches both repeatedly threatened to kill Goldman and members of his family and that she felt she “would not leave their house alive” if she didn’t comply with their demands to leave Goldman. The family member wrote that she left the encounter with a “swollen and bleeding” right hand and “minor scratches.”
Meanwhile, an attorney for Bisa French said 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.”
A Contra Costa Superior Court judge has temporarily denied the restraining order pending the outcome of an Oct. 25 hearing, writing in court records that the allegations, “while serious, appear to involve complex issues that require a hearing.”
The restraining order requests were filed Oct. 7. That same day, the Oakland police department secured an arrest warrant against Goldman, who was arrested four days later by U.S. Marshals in Richmond, with assistance from the Richmond police department. On Wednesday, Alameda County prosecutors charged Goldman with pimping and pandering the French family member.
The criminal complaint alleges those crimes happened in June. It is unclear why authorities waited nearly four months to bring up criminal charges and issue the arrest warrant. Goldman, who also goes by by Oho McNair, has a prior human trafficking conviction, the complaint says.
According to the probable cause declaration against Goldman, Bisa and Lee French arranged for an Oakland police officer and an FBI agent to speak with their family member. The Oakland officer took the young woman to a friend’s house, and on the way, Oakland police say she admitted that Goldman was her pimp. The woman denied that she was being trafficked or that Goldman had ever abused her in the restraining order request.
Earlier this month, the woman agreed to go to an out-of-state “treatment program” but absconded five days later, according to Oakland police investigators. The restraining order request indicates it was written from the facility. When Goldman was arrested on the 500 block of Berk Avenue in Richmond on Monday, the woman was with him, according to the probable cause statement.
Bisa French’s attorney Mike Rains told this newspaper that Goldman “took this wonderful young woman who is an excellent scholar in high school, graduated magna cum laude, and turned her against her own family and frankly into a criminal, a prostitute.”
“They’ve committed no crimes. They’ll be cooperating fully with admin investigations and criminal investigations,” Rains said. “These allegations are simply the product of the brainwashing that’s occurred by this horrible man who has trafficked her. That’s what we’re dealing with.”
On Thursday, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt sent out a mass public email accusing City Manager Laura Snideman of misrepresenting the nature of Bisa French’s leave by first telling staff it was “personal leave” and days later — after reporters were tipped off — acknowledging that French was on administrative leave. Snideman didn’t respond to an email requesting the exact dates French’s leave started and whether she was ever on personal leave.
Meanwhile, authorities in Solano County are investigating allegations that Bisa and Lee French threatened Goldman’s mother after showing up at her Vallejo home on Sept. 22, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Vallejo police have not yet brought the findings of the investigation to the Solano County District Attorney to determine whether criminal charges against the Frenches should be filed in connection with the incident. That is expected to happen in coming weeks, authorities said.
After that incident, Vallejo police Chief Shawny Williams sent Armstrong, the Oakland police chief, communications discussing what had happened, according to law enforcement sources. An Oakland police spokesperson said the department opened its internal affairs investigation into “criminal allegations being investigated by Vallejo police,” but declined to comment further. The spokesperson said Lee French was “not privy to any parts of the criminal investigation” into Goldman.
Williams said in a written statement that he informed Armstrong because “when an incident occurs in Vallejo which involves police officers employed by another department, it is my responsibility to contact the employing department to inform them of accusations involving one of their members, so the employing agency can launch an internal affairs investigation.” He confirmed his department is investigating the Sept. 22 incident.
Bisa French, a Richmond police officer since 1998, has steadily risen though the ranks of the department. She has worked as a public information officer, assistant chief, captain in charge of the Youth Services Bureau and a sergeant in the domestic violence unit, among other roles. She is in her second year as chief after being appointed in July 2020 when she became both the first woman and the first Black woman to ever hold that role.
Up until now, her tenure as chief has steered clear of public controversy. French’s leave is indefinite, according to a department-wide email sent by assistant Richmond police Chief Louie Tirona, who is taking over as acting police chief.
Rains said that Bisa and Lee French will “cooperate fully” with administrative and criminal probes and that they will speak publicly after the investigations have ended.
