Written complaints by three female Columbus Division of Fire employees describing interactions with a now-suspended battalion chief say he made sexual comments and asked them personal sexual questions.
One employee wrote that she was upset over a fellow employee leaving her office and how it might worsen her workload when Battalion Chief Joe Richard came in, shut the door, sat down and stared at her for up to 30 seconds in silence.
"I was crying and I told him I didn't want to talk right now," the woman wrote in statements obtained from the city Friday. After she told Richard she distrusted men, he allegedly asked: "But what about your desires?"
At one point, the woman alleges that Richard said that firefighters' uniforms "turn people on like crazy," and said he had situations where women have tried to "lure him with words and body language" and that it was difficult for him not to act on those cues.
The woman alleges that Richard said women employees "make it difficult for us because you have 'that,'" pointing between her legs, saying "that" gave women the ability to have anything they want. When another department official knocked on the door, Richard changed the subject to a work issue, the woman said.
Another female department employee wrote that she met Richard for the first time in late February.
"I'm sure almost on every occasion he told me how pretty I was," and once asked her for a hug when she passed his office, the woman wrote. When she mentioned one time she had an upcoming hair appointment, she alleges that Richard responded: "I'd leave my wife for you if you had red in your hair," before saying that those words had come out wrong.
The woman said she later decided to confront Richard in his office, telling him his comments were inappropriate, unprofessional, and could be considered sexual harassment. He apologized, she wrote.
But on another occasion, he asked her why she never invited him to lunch. He offered to pick her up in a new truck he had purchased and take her to lunch. She told him she would check her schedule.
A third woman, whose statement was also released in relation to the Richard investigation but never identifies him by name, talks of a "man being seated in high places, as a battalion chief," failing to uphold his integrity and "heinously" conducting himself at work.
The third woman appears to be objecting in writing to a department proposal to transfer the offending person to another location, which she called "a slap in the face of ever(y) woman who especially one like myself has dealt with monsters like him."
"Move to a new location and play predator vs. prey with other women? No, absolutely not. I will not stand for this injustice. I motion for him to be removed, his mess to be shut down."
Richard, 61, was placed on paid leave on Monday. He helped supervise recruiting for the fire division and worked in the central office on Parsons Avenue on the South Side. The investigation has been turned over to Columbus police after the female employees filed complaints with the city's Equal Employment Resource office.
Richard could not be reached for comment Friday. He has worked for the city for more than 34 years, and is paid an hourly rate that roughly translates into more than $120,000 annually, based on shift differentials and other factors.
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