By Ethan Varian and Ryan Macasero
Bay Area News Group
SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. — San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus has vehemently denied accusations leveled in a scathing independent investigator’s report alleging the county’s first Latina sheriff had an inappropriate relationship with her chief of staff, retaliated against officers and employees and used racist and homophobic slurs in the workplace.
Corpus pushed back against claims made in the 400-plus-page report, assailing it as defamatory and politically motivated and vowing to fight what she described as a corrupt “good old boys” network in the county.
The report was released just hours after Carlos Tapia, president of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, turned himself in Tuesday on charges including felony grand theft. In September, Tapia and the deputy sheriff’s union publicly accused Corpus and her chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, of many of the same claims found in the report.
Corpus denied the arrest was made in retaliation or was in response to the investigation. San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told the Bay Area News Group the arrest was related to alleged “timecard theft.”
On Wednesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hold a vote over whether to call for Corpus’ resignation over the allegations in the report, authored by LaDoris Cordell, a retired Santa Clara County judge and well-known independent police auditor. Two supervisors, Noelia Corzo and Ray Mueller, already had called for her to step down.
After public comment at the Wednesday meeting, during which many speakers had called for her resignation, an emotional Corpus addressed the supervisors.
“What has happened here over the past two days is disgusting. The inquiry was politically motivated, one-sided and filled with lies,” she said. “That is why, effective immediately, I am appointing Dr. Victor Aenlle as assistant sheriff. I am the sheriff of this county, elected by the people of San Mateo County, and I will not be bullied.”
Her announcement elicited gasps and stunned expressions from both the audience and the county board. Declining to take questions, she walked out with Undersheriff Dan Perea behind her. As she moved toward the exit, Mueller called after her, asking if she would submit her sworn testimony to Cordell. Corpus refused, saying, “I will not be bullied by you. I will testify when I have legal representation.”
The county board passed two resolutions: one expressing no confidence in Corpus, urging her resignation, and directing the independent investigation report on her conduct to be shared with the county’s civil grand jury, the District Attorney and the state’s Attorney General; and the second eliminates the Sheriff’s Executive Director of Administration role, the position that Aenlle currently holds. County Executive Mike Callagy also added that the county would revoke Aenlle’s access to all county buildings closed to the general public.
Earlier on Wednesday, the union representing the department’s rank-and-file officers, whose complaints to county officials triggered the report, asserted that their recent public criticism of Corpus only had to do with her job performance.
“We condemn Sheriff Corpus’ failure to lead this agency in a professional manner,” said Eliot Storch, a member of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
The investigator’s report also recommended the Sheriff’s Office fire her chief of staff, Aenlle, with whom Cordell alleges Corpus had an “intimate relationship” that violated agency policy and created a severe conflict of interest.
The report further alleges the relationship led Corpus to “relinquish control” of the agency to Aenlle — whom Cordell described as having “far more experience” as a real estate broker than he has in law enforcement — while fostering an environment of “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority.”
Reached by phone Wednesday, Aenlle declined to discuss the report.
Cordell’s report was based on a multi-month investigation that included interviews with 40 current and past agency employees. The specific allegations include:
– Aenlle allegedly berated and demeaned his female assistant, whom he considered her “eyes and ears” in the department, for her decision to move to another agency. The report also claims Corpus fired an assistant sheriff for cooperating with Cordell’s investigation, and that Corpus locked a captain out of her office after she gave notice of her resignation.
– Corpus allegedly texted homophobic slurs to describe a city official to an employee and used a racial slur during a work meeting when she was a captain.
– Shortly before taking office, then Sheriff-elect Corpus and Aenlle were spotted by a former agency employee while the pair were boarding a plane to Hawaii. Corpus’ then-husband was also a sworn officer in the agency at the time, according to the report. The report claims Corpus offered various explanations for why they were on the same flight and denied she had any relationship with Aenlle.
– The report found Corpus violated agency policy by having Aenlle directly report to her and repeatedly recommending pay increases for him.
– Despite being a civilian employee, Aenlle allegedly wore a badge that resembled a gold officer’s badge but emblazoned with the words “Chief of Staff,” a potential misdemeanor.
– The report found that Aenlle helped secure a lease for a new substation for the department that was brokered by his real estate agency, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, despite the conflict of interest.
Corpus is not up for reelection again until 2028, due to a one-time shift in the timing of sheriffs’ elections statewide.
Those who may want her out of office could mount a campaign to recall her. Or they could ask the county’s civil grand jury to open an investigation as grounds for a civil corruption or misconduct trial, a little-used tactic to remove an elected official from office.
In 2022, former Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith was formally expelled from her position through the process after she resigned over a scandal involving issuing concealed carry permits.
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