Rachel Swan
San Francisco Chronicle
When San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus ran for office two years ago, she promised to clean up the scandal-plagued department, dubbing her campaign “Team Revolution.”
Her predecessor came under scrutiny amid accusations of prioritizing donors when issuing concealed-carry gun permits and improperly dispatching investigators to raid the garage of an Indiana Batmobile manufacturer, which came after he was swept up in an FBI raid of a Las Vegas brothel.
But instead of reforming what she often described as a “good old boy” mentality that had festered over years, Corpus is herself now mired in allegations of wrongdoing. And despite calls from around the state for her to step down, she remains defiant and has only escalated her battle to keep her job.
“I am the sheriff of this county,” Corpus told the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday before they passed a no-confidence vote and slashed the top administrative position she had created for her alleged boyfriend. “I answer to the people of this county who elected me. I will not be bullied.”
Corpus told the supervisors that she was not only unwilling to back down, she was giving her alleged paramour a new, more senior law enforcement position in her office — a surprise move.
It was the latest shock in a political drama that gripped the sleepy Peninsula county and stunned voters who had supported Corpus’ election bid in June 2022 when she ran as an underdog and a changemaker.
Yet an independent investigation released this week detailed seven findings against Corpus and Victor Aenlle, the executive director of administration with whom she had an inappropriate “personal relationship,” according to the nearly 400-page report.
Produced by retired Santa Clara County Judge LaDoris Cordell, whom the county tapped in July to probe 15 allegations from current and former sheriff employees, the report painted an unsettling picture of an office that began fraying after Corpus took over. Among its conclusions: Corpus had used racial and homophobic slurs to deride colleagues, and that she engaged in intimidation and retaliatory behavior, at one point firing an assistant sheriff for cooperating with Cordell’s investigation.
As part of the probe, Cordell interviewed Aenlle in a recorded phone call. Corpus declined to participate. A spokesperson for the sheriff did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and attempts to reach Corpus by phone were unsuccessful. She has criticized the report in public remarks, dismissing it as a “hatchet job” and saying it is “filled with lies.” Aenlle denied having an affair with Corpus in an interview with the Palo Alto Daily Post a few weeks ago, calling allegations about the relationship “a witch hunt.”
Hours before two San Mateo County supervisors unveiled the report Tuesday afternoon and urged Corpus to resign, her department arrested Carlos Tapia, the president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, on suspicion of felony grand theft and theft by false pretenses — all stemming from what a probable cause declaration portrayed as irregularities in his time cards.
Union representatives balked, writing in a statement that Corpus’ decision to arrest Tapia has “all the earmarks of whistleblower retaliation.” Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox, who signed the arrest declaration, quit his job Thursday night, union spokespeople confirmed.
Members of law enforcement unions throughout the state are now using every lever of power to oust Corpus and block her from a future career in law enforcement.
They fired another salvo Wednesday. In a letter to members, the boards of two San Mateo County sheriff associations recommended sending Cordell’s report to the state attorney general, the San Mateo County district attorney, and the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training for an expedited misconduct investigation.
“We are extremely upset and disappointed with Sheriff Corpus’ continued refusal to do the right thing,” the board directors wrote. “We are extremely upset that, rather than resign, she has doubled down and appointed Aenlle to a position he is not qualified for.”
During her campaign and afterward, Corpus persistently portrayed herself as a reform candidate who would upend the culture of favoritism that was institutionalized under former Sheriff Carlos Bolanos.
Though Bolanos racked up high-profile endorsements when he ran as the incumbent in 2022, he had repeatedly come under fire. Corpus, then a captain at the Millbrae substation, narrowly overtook her boss to become the first elected Latina and female sheriff in San Mateo County history.
“I believed in the promises she made during her campaign,” Supervisor Noelia Corzo said from the dais at Wednesday’s meeting, before the no-confidence vote. “I asked for people to support her at every door that I knocked on.”
Corzo pointed out that since January 2023, 106 sworn staff members have left the sheriff’s office, among them “some of the most experienced and well-respected members of the executive team who she personally hired.” Leaders of the grassroots group Fixin’ San Mateo County, who had helped rally and fundraise to get Corpus elected, expressed feelings of betrayal when the report came out.
“We felt her commitment, and she’s broken that commitment,” said the group’s chair, Jim Lawrence. He is now pushing for permanent independent oversight of the sheriff’s office.
David Wozniak, a former president of the sheriff deputies union, conceded that the majority of the department seemed “happy” to see her win.
“She came at a time when people wanted to see women and people of color be successful,” Wozniak said, adding that many deputies hoped she would be fair on discipline.
The turmoil began, he said, even before Corpus was sworn in. As sheriff-elect, she agreed to meet with the union “with a weird stipulation that she didn’t want any questions on who her command staff would be,” he said. He believed that by then her relationships with colleagues and advisers were falling apart, and that people who had lined up to take top positions were walking away.
Wozniak has since retired, and in March sued the county — and Corpus and Aenlle individually — alleging workplace discrimination and retaliation because the union didn’t endorse Corpus during the election, choosing to remain neutral.
His lawsuit is pending in federal court. In filings, Corpus acknowledged demoting Wozniak from acting sergeant to deputy sheriff. However, she denied many of Wozniak’s other allegations and disputed Wozniak’s claim that she viewed his union presidency as a “problem” or “headache.”
In the timeline laid out in Cordell’s report, signs of trouble appeared after Corpus traveled to Hawaii with Aenlle in October 2022. Aenlle, a longtime real estate agent, had worked closely with Corpus on her campaign and was hired to consult for her transition team. County officials terminated his contract after learning of the Hawaii trip, the report said, noting that Corpus rehired him in January 2023, as a full-time contractor making $92 an hour. His assigned tasks included “translating the sheriff’s vision into concrete policies and initiatives.”
She then created a full-time position — the executive director of administration — and hired Aenlle to take it for $246,000 a year, the report said. The job opening was not publicized, and only Aenlle applied. Corpus made several requests to raise Aenlle’s pay to the level of an assistant sheriff, but county officials denied these.
About a month into her term, Corpus informed Wozniak, through a sealed letter, that his temporary assignment as acting sergeant was ending, Wozniak said.
“I had no discipline, and no notice,” Wozniak told the Chronicle. By then he had left his leadership post at the union and largely did not interact with Corpus.
During his 17-year tenure with the union, Woziak said, he had tried to sustain a respectful relationship with sheriff administrators, calling or texting “24 hours a day if I had to,” to squash problems before they turned into formal grievances. Yet after Corpus came in, he said, those lines of communication disintegrated.
It didn’t take long for the complaints to start rolling in. Over the course of her investigation, Cordell interviewed 40 current and past sworn and civilian employees, the vast majority of whom had come forward with allegations against Corpus, she wrote in her report.
As Corpus left the Board of Supervisors chamber Wednesday afternoon, Supervisor Ray Mueller called after her.
“Sheriff Corpus,” he said, “will you agree to sit for sworn testimony in front of Judge Cordell?”
Walking out, Corpus said she would answer once she gets a lawyer. A beat of silence followed, and then she was gone.
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