Fired Richmond cop sues, accuses chief of sexual advances

A fired Richmond police officer is suing the city, saying the police chief made sexual advances to him and wrongfully terminated him for a domestic battery incident and buying unregistered guns.

Thomas Hauschild, 44, who had been an officer for eight years before he was fired in 2013, filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, naming the city and Chief Chris Magnus as defendants. He accused the chief of instigating a biased internal affairs investigation into unfounded accusations after Hauschild complained he had been sexually harassed by him.

“Mr. Hauschild’s employment record as a police officer with the city of Richmond was excellent until he raised concerns about the chief’s inappropriate conduct,” Hauschild’s attorney, David Poore, said Saturday. “Since then, he had been repeatedly targeted in the workplace in direct retaliation for his protected activity, in what was an obvious attempt to terminate his employment and soil his good name.”

Magnus said Saturday, “Although I am no longer surprised that holding some employees responsible for their bad behavior results in retaliatory lawsuits, these particular allegations are a new low. I will continue to take conduct involving domestic violence and weapons issues seriously, regardless of this desperate attempt to intimidate me and shake down the city.”

The lawsuit says the problems began after Hauschild was assigned to protect Magnus’ home at night and in the early morning hours. Magnus, who is gay, said several officers had been assigned to guard him and his partner after the department learned that a son of a neighbor was associating with people involved in the methamphetamine industry.

According to the suit, one evening, the chief, while dressed in “questionable civilian attire” and walking his dog, approached Hauschild and “began touching plaintiff inappropriately on his arm and began rubbing plaintiff on his upper leg, in an obvious sexual manner.”

Hauschild said he told the chief to stop touching him and to also stop calling him on his personal phone, the suit says.

“A reasonable person would have considered the conduct and touching sexual in nature, particularly in light of the areas of the body touched, the manner of touching and the overall context of the touching, along with the personal telephone calls,” Poore said. He said the chief was wearing “very short cut-off jean shorts.”

Poore said his client “has no issue” with any employee’s sexual orientation and “has always considered himself to be an officer that supports diversity in the workplace.”

Hauschild said he complained about Magnus’ conduct, and after the chief found out, “he was furious, and his entire demeanor and attitude toward plaintiff changed,” the complaint says.

Department officials began retaliating against him, denying him overtime and training, removing him from the SWAT team and refusing to allow him to serve as an acting sergeant or homicide detective, according to the suit.

In September 2012, Hauschild was placed on administrative leave after he was involved in an altercation with his ex-wife, who hit him in the face and body during a child-custody exchange, the suit says. Hauschild was arrested by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies but wasn’t charged in the case. Deputies, however, removed eight guns he had purchased during “private firearm sales” with other Richmond officers, the suit says.

As a result of the arrest, Magnus placed Hauschild “under a pretext internal affairs investigation” that lasted more than a year, even though “the evidence demonstrated that plaintiff did nothing wrong,” the suit says.

The department wrongly accused him of placing a condom on his ex-wife’s front door, failed to discipline the officers who were responsible for documenting the gun sales and assigned Magnus as the officer to hear Hauschild’s case, despite his sexual harassment complaint, the suit says. Hauschild was fired in December 2013. He has also worked as a sheriff’s deputy and firefighter in Contra Costa County.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee