Embattled San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus has filed a $10 million declare in opposition to the county, alleging gender and racial discrimination after the county launched a report final November containing scathing findings about her administration.
The county employed retired Choose LaDoris Cordell to conduct an investigation into Corpus after a number of sheriff’s deputies got here ahead with complaints of retaliation and an inappropriate relationship between Corpus and her Chief of Workers, Victor Aenlle.
The consequence was a 400-page report stuffed with interviews with present and previous workers that sustained allegations of abuse of energy, retaliation, intimidation, homophobia and racism in Corpus’ workplace.
Since then, a rising checklist of native and state politicians, the Board of Supervisors, the San Carlos Metropolis Council, and unions representing sheriff’s deputies within the county have all urged Corpus to step down. She has remained defiant and even had Carlos Tapia, certainly one of her greatest critics and union president, arrested on costs that have been later dropped by the District Legal professional’s Workplace.
Now Corpus has employed employment and civil rights legal professional Bradley Gage, who filed a declare in opposition to the county on Dec. 3. Gage alleges that Corpus “has been the victim of discrimination, harassment and defamation” for being Latina.
“There are some who unfortunately still believe that law enforcement is a white man’s world,” the declare alleges. “They have tried to spread false and salacious rumors about Sheriff Corpus. Some of those detractors do not like the fact that she is the first female and first Latin X Sheriff in the 167-year history of the Sheriff’s Department.”
Corpus has beforehand affirmed this argument, saying that she was focused by a “good old boy system.”
“I am a woman of color who has gone up the ranks in a male-dominated field,” Corpus stated in a November press convention after Tapia was arrested.
‘Baseless and a distraction’
The county hit again in response to the declare in an announcement on Tuesday, saying that the allegations are “baseless and a distraction.”
“The government claim, which includes wrong and misspelled names — including that of the sheriff herself and Supervisor Noelia Corzo — is largely devoid of any alleged facts supporting its conclusions and egregiously accuses Judge LaDoris Cordell of partaking in what the claim calls an ‘evil scheme,’” stated the county. “Cordell is a highly respected former judicial official with decades of public service, including in ensuring law enforcement accountability.”
The declare additionally alleges that County Govt Mike Callagy and Supervisor Corzo defamed Corpus and “violated the rights afforded to all peace officers in the State of California by releasing confidential and one-sided investigations of Sheriff Corpus.”
Corzo, who’s Latina, has been one of many most important spokespersons for the investigation together with Supervisor Ray Mueller. Nonetheless, Mueller was not named within the declare and the Board of Supervisors launched the investigation as one physique.
San Mateo County Supervisors Noelia Corzo and Ray Mueller communicate through the Nov. 14, 2023, board assembly concerning a proposed formal management rotation coverage for board members. (San Mateo County)
Corzo, Callagy and County Legal professional John Nibbelin didn’t reply to requests for remark by Tuesday night.
Corpus and Gage have been supposed to carry a press convention on Monday to additional clarify the allegations within the declare. Nonetheless, it was abruptly cancelled in order that they might collect extra info to construct their case, Gage stated in an interview.
One of many points of their case was figuring out what info was not initially made public within the report, Gage stated.
When the 408-page report was first launched in November, it was lacking 29 pages. The majority of the lacking pages got here from Aenlle’s interview with Cordell.
A few of the allegations in opposition to Aenlle that Cordell sustained embrace that he had a battle of curiosity when negotiating the lease for a brand new substation and that he was not approved to put on a gold badge as sworn workers do.
Lacking pages — and motives
On Tuesday, the county additionally responded to the declare by releasing the complete report, which now accommodates a complete of 442 pages. They stated that withholding the 29 pages from the preliminary report was carried out as a result of it was not related to the sustained findings.
“Twenty-nine pages of the transcript were not included in the exhibit because they were not cited by Cordell nor were they material to the report,” the county stated in Tuesday’s press launch. “There was nothing nefarious about these pages not having been included in the exhibit but, given the interest in them, as mentioned, they are now available on the county’s website.”
A few of the pages that have been initially lacking from Aenlle’s interview include statements of him denying wrongdoing concerned in actual property offers for the Sheriff’s Workplace.
Earlier than working within the sheriff’s workplace, Aenlle primarily labored as an actual property agent with Coldwell Banker Realty. Whereas working because the chief of workers, Aenlle helped negotiate the lease for a brand new substation, which was brokered by Coldwell Banker Realty.
(R-L) San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus and Undersheriff Dan Perea strolling out of the chambers of the Board of Supervisors after Corpus delcared she could be selling her Chief of Workers, Victor Aenlle, to the function of Assistant Sheriff on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 in Redwood Metropolis, Calif. (Alise Maripuu/Bay Metropolis Information)
“I’ve never benefited from any deals or been representing myself as a broker or an agent at all whatsoever,” Aenlle stated, in response to web page 49 of his interview with Cordell.
Different pages include explanations Aenlle made in describing why he thinks he’s allowed to put on a gold badge.
“All sworn personnel and civilian staff have gold badges. I have directors that work way below me that have a gold badge. So, again, this is a misconception,” Aenlle stated in his interview with Cordell on web page 106. “In this department, we have civilian directors that have gold badges. We have reserves that have gold badges … I’m still listed as a reserve in this department.”
Gage says that the Board is counting on the report as a part of an “evil scheme” to take away her from workplace, which the Board doesn’t presently have the authority to do.
