An assistant chief in the investigations unit of the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office was charged last week with breaking into the home of a colleague he previously dated and assaulting her.

Richard McDonald, 56, of Oakdale, is charged with burglary, simple assault, harassment and recklessly endangering another person.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said McDonald, who was hired by the office in May 2018, has been suspended with pay.

“Due to this being a personnel matter, this office will have no further comment,” the spokesperson said.

McDonald is being prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office, where he once worked.

McDonald was released on $50,000 unsecured bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2 at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Attorney Robert Del Greco Jr., who represents McDonald, said on Monday he could not comment on the charges.

According to the criminal complaint, around 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Pittsburgh police were called to a house in the city’s Oakwood neighborhood in the West End for a burglary.

When officers arrived, the homeowner said McDonald, who she previously dated, had walked into her home that afternoon and assaulted her and a man.

According to the criminal complaint, McDonald arrived at the house that afternoon and knocked on the door. When he got no answer, he walked away, according to police.

A few minutes later, McDonald returned and entered the house through the front door, the complaint said.

The two alleged victims, who were upstairs at the time, heard a man’s voice and went to the top of the stairwell where they said they saw McDonald.

Then, police said, McDonald ran up the stairs, pushed the woman aside and punched the man in the mouth.

McDonald, the complaint continued, then dragged the woman down the steps by her hair.

Police said McDonald pulled a gun and pointed it at the man, who responded, “‘What, are you going to shoot me?’”

McDonald then left, according to police.

The woman told police McDonald may have had a key to the house from when they dated in 2018.

As police were watching video from the Ring doorbell camera on the homeowner’s phone, McDonald called her, police said, adding that she did not answer.

McDonald was a Pittsburgh police officer from 1989 through 2002 and then worked as a special agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office until 2006, according to court documents.

In 2007, according to a lawsuit McDonald filed in federal court, he was hired to be the chief of police for Ellwood City.

However, the Pennsylvania State Police through the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission, would not recertify McDonald as a police officer because he was taking a pain medication prescribed for him after he was injured in a line-of-duty accident.

McDonald served as Ellwood City public safety director for about 18 months and sued state police over the decision not to recertify him. A federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled in the commission’s favor in 2012.

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