On the ultimate day of her elimination hearings final month, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus did one thing surprising: She reversed her opposition to an impartial inspector common that will look into misconduct inside her workplace, which she acknowledged is stuffed with personnel who don’t respect her management.
Corpus, elected in 2022, faces not solely elimination via a civil grand jury accusation filed in June alleging misconduct and abuse of energy but additionally the fallout from Measure A, a voter-approved initiative handed in March that provides the Board of Supervisors authority to take away a sheriff via 2028.
Retired Choose James Emerson, who presided over the county’s elimination hearings, has 45 days to concern a written advisory opinion. The board then has 30 days to evaluation, with a four-fifths majority vote wanted to dismiss her. If eliminated, Corpus could be the primary sheriff within the state to be ousted by a board of supervisors.
The lately concluded hearings have been open to the general public however not recorded. Testimonies centered on Corpus’ management, personnel choices and inner sheriff’s workplace tradition, drawing closely on a 400-page report revealed final yr by retired Choose LaDoris Cordell.
This month marks one yr since sheriff’s union leaders publicly accused Corpus of fostering a tradition of “unease and retaliation,” igniting a political battle that has divided the group, consumed numerous hours and sources, and has doubtless price the Silicon Valley county thousands and thousands. Regardless of mounting stress, Corpus — the county’s first Latina sheriff — exhibits no indicators of backing down.
However the accusations towards Corpus are simply the most recent chapter in a sheriff’s workplace lengthy shadowed by scandals.
In 2007, Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos and Sheriff Greg Munks have been caught in a Las Vegas brothel. After his election in 2016, Sheriff Bolanos allegedly intervened in 2022 in a personal dispute over a luxurious duplicate “Batmobile” in Indiana. Neither confronted elimination proceedings.
Greg Munks greets his officers earlier than taking the oath of workplace as the brand new San Mateo County Sheriff on Monday, Nov. 20, 2008 in Redwood Metropolis. (Mathew Sumner/Employees Archives)
In contrast to different giant counties with each an inspector common and a civilian oversight fee, San Mateo depends on advert hoc investigators like Cordell, which “allows problems to fester,” mentioned Nancy Goodban, a member of Fixin’ San Mateo County, a citizen-led reform group.
Whereas the group doesn’t oppose the elimination course of as a type of accountability for sitting sheriffs, it has been advocating since 2021 for a everlasting, full-time inspector common to independently monitor the sheriff’s workplace, examine complaints, evaluation insurance policies, and report publicly — duties at present dealt with by the division’s Skilled Requirements Bureau.
A key second within the Corpus hearings got here when the sheriff introduced her assist for an impartial inspector common, stunning longtime watchdogs who’ve been demanding one for years.
“I realize the police shouldn’t be policing the police,” Corpus mentioned on the witness stand.
Her reversal on the concept got here after two weeks of testimony through which witnesses accused the sheriff of misconduct, bullying and an inappropriate relationship along with her former chief of workers, Victor Aenlle. On the stand, Corpus described most of them as “liars” or “dishonest.”
Victor Aenlle, proper, the previous chief of workers on the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Workplace speaks to the media following his testimony on the Redwood Metropolis courthouse in Redwood Metropolis, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Whereas a lot of the witnesses have been included within the county-commissioned Cordell and subsequent Keker studies, it was the primary time she heard from accusers in individual.
“Sitting there, listening to people from my own team lie about me, made me think — if they can do that to me, what are they doing out in the community? That deeply concerns me,” Corpus mentioned.
Fixin’ San Mateo County referred to as her shift “welcome and overdue.”
Emily Farris, an affiliate political science professor at Texas Christian College and co-author of “The Power of the Badge: Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States,” mentioned in a telephone interview that sheriffs wield “extraordinary power” as independently elected officers, overseeing jails and countywide legislation enforcement. Although elections are supposed to carry sheriffs accountable to voters, Farris questioned their effectiveness in doing so.
“There’s no other, to my knowledge, chief law enforcement officer elected anywhere in the world,” she mentioned. “The way elections work doesn’t actually provide the accountability mechanism they claim, because elections are low-information, the competition is controlled, and so on.”
Christina Corpus, working for San Mateo County Sheriff in 2022, rides within the Cesar Chavez Vacation Parade in San Francisco. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Corpus’ public elimination hearings uncovered the seldom-examined political complexities inside sheriff’s workplaces, echoing themes Farris explored in her guide.
For instance, county legal professionals spotlighted textual content messages between Corpus and former colleague Valerie Barnes, a star witness who claimed firsthand data of an alleged affair with Aenlle.
After Barnes’ testimony, Corpus’ attorneys countered that her former colleague — as soon as a marketing campaign supporter — had threatened to “take that b**** down” after being denied a promotion she was anticipating for serving to the marketing campaign, casting doubt on her motivation. Corpus’ staff argued the accusations towards her needs to be considered inside the context of inner politics.
A number of officers and union leaders testified they have been retaliated towards for criticizing the sheriff, however Corpus argued transfers shouldn’t routinely be seen as punitive.
Whereas Corpus’ prime brass have accused her of fostering a poisonous and hostile surroundings, she used her first time on the stand to argue that issues on the sheriff’s workplace started lengthy earlier than she stepped into the function, describing a tradition beneath her predecessors that rewarded donations to incumbents with promotions or favors.
San Mateo Sheriff Christina Corpus, with lawyer Thomas Mazzucco standing to her proper and former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez on her left, leaves the County Courthouse along with her authorized staff after testifying throughout the second day of her two-week elimination listening to on Tuesday, Aug. 19. (Ryan Macasero/Bay Space Information Group)
Corpus’ authorized staff used the hearings to forged doubt on key county witnesses and defend the legitimacy of her personnel choices and fraud investigations.
Past political prices, the extended elimination processes carry a rising monetary toll. The March particular election alone price $4.4 million, in line with appropriations requests, whereas the Cordell report added at the very least $200,000.
Jim Lawrence, chair of Fixin’ San Mateo County and a former Foster Metropolis mayor, mentioned solely civilian oversight, impartial of the workplace’s inner politics, can guarantee lasting reform.
“We envision a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office that delivers law enforcement to the highest standards, second to none — one where every resident is treated equally, and where transparency, accountability and trust are not just expected, but earned,” he mentioned.
