Redwood City – The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors today unanimously took a vote of no confidence in Sheriff Christina Corpus and demanded her immediate resignation in response to an independent investigator’s report concluding the sheriff fostered a culture of retaliation, maintains an inappropriate personal relationship with her executive director of administration and used racial and homophobic slurs.
The Board also immediately terminated the executive director of administration position — a new civilian post created at the request of the sheriff for Victor Aenlle with a salary of nearly $250,000— and ordered an ordinance asking voters to amend the County Charter to allow the Board to remove the sheriff upon a finding of good cause. A proposed Charter amendment could come to voters in March 2025. After the sheriff announced at the meeting she was elevating Aenlle to the position of assistant sheriff, the Board directed the County attorney to investigate the legality of such a move. County Executive Mike Callagy also announced that effective immediately barring Aenlle from County facilities reserved for sworn officers and County employees.
The Board called its special Wednesday afternoon meeting specifically in response to the independent investigator Judge LaDoris Cordell’s conclusion that “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interests and abuses of authority are the hallmarks of the Corpus administration.” The Board also voted unanimously to:
- Send the independent investigation to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, the California Attorney General and other local government agencies.
- Send the report to the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury.
- Affirm release of the investigation’s report.
The Board of Supervisors retained Cordell in July 2024 in response to multiple reports and complaints about Aenlle. The investigation widened over time based on witness accounts and evidence to include others in the office.
On Tuesday, Supervisors Noelia Corzo and Ray Mueller released Cordell’s hefty report which concluded affirmatively:
- Corpus and Aenlle, who is described as her chief of staff, have a “personal relationship” beyond mere friendship that creates a conflict of interest.
- Corpus has uttered and texted racial and homophobic slurs in the workplace.
- Aenlle has not met the duty requirements for a reserve deputy sheriff.
- Aenlle is out of compliance with the requirements to maintain his status as a Level 1 reserve deputy because he claimed that his hours working as chief of staff also served as his volunteer duty hours required for reserve deputies.
- Corpus and her executive team engage in retaliation and intimidation.
- Aenlle has exceeded and/or abused his authority with the approval of Corpus.
- Aenlle exercises authority well beyond that of supervising civilian personnel. With the sheriff’s approval, Aenlle has moved himself to the top of the chain of command so that he exercises wide-ranging and sometimes abusive authority over both civilian and sworn employees.
- Aenlle had a conflict of interest when negotiating the lease for property to be used as a daycare center.
- Aenlle is not authorized to wear a badge that resembles the gold badges of sworn employees and by doing so he has likely committed a misdemeanor for willfully wearing a facsimile badge that could deceive a civilian into believing he is a sworn officer with full police powers. Corpus, by issuing the gold badge to Aenlle, may have committed a misdemeanor, as well.
At Wednesday’s meeting, prior to the Board voting on the recommendations, members encouraged the public to read the report for themselves to understand the overwhelming amount of evidence and testimony Cordell considered to reach her conclusion that “nothing short of new leadership can save this organization that is in turmoil, and its personnel demoralized.”
Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
mdurand@smcgov.org