A California sheriff is under fire after a new report alleged she hired a top aide with whom she had an inappropriate intimate relationship with — to the tune of more than $246,000 per year.
San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus is facing calls to resign after the damning report outlined other accusations of abuse of power and intimidation as head of the department, on top of her hiring of Victor Aenlle to serve as her chief of staff.
The release of the report also coincided with the arrest of a deputy who leads its Deputy Sheriff’s Association, with its union blasting the criminal charges as politically motivated by Corpus, according to reports.
“Lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority are the hallmarks of the Corpus administration,” the scathing report states. “Sheriff Corpus should step down and Victor Aenlle’s employment with the Sheriff’s Office should be terminated immediately.
“Nothing short of new leadership can save this organization that is in turmoil, and its personnel demoralized.”
The report, conducted by a retired judge, asserted that Corpus and Aenlle have a personal relationship “beyond mere friendship.” The evidence indicates they had had an “intimate relationship,” according to the report.
“This relationship has led Sheriff Corpus to relinquish control of the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office to Aenlle, someone who has far more experience as a Coldwell Banker associate real estate broker than he has in law enforcement,” according to the report.
In July 2023, Aenlle was hired as executive director of administration, a civilian position, with an annual salary of $246,979 annually including benefits.
He worked for her successful sheriff campaign in 2022 and then was hired to work on her transition team, but the county terminated that gig when officials found out Corpus and Aenlle went to Hawaii together, per the report.
The report also claims myriad other issues with Corpus, including her allegedly sending racist and homophobic texts and firing an assistant sheriff for cooperating with the internal probe.
“It’s clear we have a sheriff we cannot trust,” Corzo said, according to ABC 7 Los Angeles.
“This independent investigation lays out the reasons.”
But Corpus isn’t backing down, holding two separate news conferences Tuesday defending her office.
“I am shocked by the outright slander by two members of the Board of Supervisors this afternoon. No one will call me a racist or a homophobe. … Anyone who knows me knows I would not use racist words,” she said during the first one, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I am not capable of that. This is a hatchet job of an inquiry which was commissioned with a predetermined outcome in mind and was filled with lies.”
During the second news conference, she said she has a “personal relationship with Mr. Aenlle and members of my staff.”
“I’ve been dealing with this kind of rhetoric my entire career,” she insisted, per the newspaper.
“I am a woman of color that has gone up the ranks in a male-dominated field. This is nothing new to me.”
The same day the report was issued, Carlos Tapia, the president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, was arrested and charged by the sheriff’s office on charges of felony grand theft and theft by false pretenses, according to the Chronicle.
He argued the arrest was spurred by retaliation because he was a strong critic of her leadership.
The union claimed the arrest “has all the earmarks of whistleblower retaliation,” according to the Palo Alto Daily Post.
“The Sheriff abused her power and the public trust by violating this long-standing conflict of interest policy and arresting the union president,” the union reportedly continued.
Corpus claimed the arrest was based on probable cause that a crime was committed and denied it was retaliation.
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