San Mateo County Sheriff Corpus vowed to end corruption. Now she finds herself at the center of scandal

When Christina Corpus won voters’ support to become San Mateo County’s first Latina sheriff, she vowed to end the “pass-downs and political favors” she said dictated control of the department and carry out a reform agenda to “move our law enforcement agency to the 21st century.”

Her former boss, Carlos Bolanos, whom she unseated in 2022, was accused of favoring donors when issuing concealed gun permits and raiding an Indiana Batmobile maker at the behest of a wealthy friend. Years earlier, as undersheriff, he was picked up in a sweep of a Las Vegas brothel.

During the campaign, Corpus, then a captain, alleged Bolanos passed her over for a promotion and targeted her and others for a lack of loyalty, which Bolanos denied.

“That’s the worst kind of leadership when you are feared by your people,” she told the Bay Area News Group after the election. “I’m not going to be that kind of leader.”

Yet two years later, Corpus now finds herself facing many strikingly similar accusations.

Earlier this month, the county released an explosive 400-page independent investigator’s report that found Corpus had an inappropriate relationship with her former chief of staff, retaliated against officers and employees, and used racist and homophobic slurs in the workplace, among other serious allegations against her and department leadership, including improperly possessing rifles with silencers and engaging in questionable real estate deals.

“Lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority are the hallmarks of the Corpus administration,” wrote the report’s author, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell.

The bombshell report has triggered loud calls for her resignation from across ranks within the department and from local, state and congressional lawmakers. Last week, the County Board of Supervisors agreed to send a measure before voters in March that could give supervisors the authority to remove Corpus.

Still, Corpus has remained defiant, vehemently denying the accusations and refusing to step down.

She’s described the report and efforts to oust her as part of a politically motivated “coup” orchestrated by a “good ol’ boys network” threatened by her effort to overhaul a department she says is in desperate need of reform.

Corpus, 53, began working for the Sheriff’s Office more than two decades ago as a correctional officer before working her way up to captain overseeing the Millbrae Police Department, a division of the Sheriff’s Office. She spent much of her career focused on neighborhood outreach, including as head of a community policing unit.

Michael Kelly, an ardent Corpus ally and founder of the Millbrae Anti-Racist Coalition, described her as dedicated to furthering equity in the county, recalling how as a captain in Millbrae, she would help organize Dia De Los Muertos events and made a point of dispatching Spanish-speaking deputies to communities of color.

Kelly said Corpus told him she decided to pursue law enforcement after, as a young girl, she and her family were victims of a carjacking. “The way the officers responded and treated her and her family made her feel safe,” he said. “She said, ‘I want to be that type of person.’”

Corpus emerged as a candidate for sheriff in the wake of racial justice protests in 2020, just as local Democratic Party officials and some within the department sought a challenger to Bolanos, according to people who helped with her campaign.

“She was the only one who stepped up and said, ‘I’m going to run against the existing sheriff,’” said Jim Lawrence, board chair of Fixin’ San Mateo County, a group founded in 2021 to advocate for Sheriff’s Office oversight that backed Corpus’ campaign.

Lawrence, a former Foster City mayor, said that once Corpus took office, however, she sought to delay plans for a civilian oversight committee for her office. During her campaign, Corpus also promised to rebuild relationships with the immigrant community, limit the use of lethal force and undertake a full audit of “questionable” department contracts.

The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to questions for Corpus.

Following the recent allegations against her, Fixin’ San Mateo County has called for Corpus to step down.

“The Christina Corpus that I know and worked with during the campaign is now not the same person,” Lawrence said. “All things point to an appointment she made when she brought Victor Aenlle in as chief of staff.”

Aenlle, whom Corpus describes as a longtime friend and who served a key role in her campaign, is at the center of the scandal enveloping the Sheriff’s Office.

The investigator’s report found “overwhelming factual evidence” that Aenlle and Corpus have had an inappropriate relationship, including alleged trips to Hawaii, a gift of $11,000 diamond earrings and an employee claiming to have seen the pair “playing footsie” at Aenlle’s ranch house on the coast.

Corpus had been married to a sworn employee in the department, but he filed for divorce last year, according to court records.

More concerningly, the report alleges the relationship led Corpus to “relinquish control” of the agency to Aenlle, whom Cordell, the investigator, described as having “far more experience” as a real estate broker than he has in law enforcement. Cordell found that Aenlle, despite being a civilian, exercises “wide-ranging and sometimes abusive authority” over sworn personnel, and is quick to berate or demean those with whom he disagrees.

Cordell added that Aenlle and Corpus harbor an obsession with “loyalty that borders on paranoia,” highlighting an alleged request that Aenlle’s office be swept for bugged devices. The report goes on to describe a demoralized department, with at least 106 sworn staff — from deputies to Corpus’s second in command — having departed since she took office.

Lawrence and others who helped Corpus get elected said Aenlle was a demanding but effective operator during the campaign. They said his apparent take-over of the department came as a shock, especially since they viewed Corpus as a confident decision-maker who seemed poised to remake the agency for the better.

Aenlle denied the allegations when Cordell interviewed him during the investigation. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors voted to eliminate Aenlle’s position and lock him out of county buildings. But ahead of the move, Corpus said she promoted him to assistant sheriff.

On Thursday, supervisors called on the public to reject Corpus’ claims she’s a victim of a conspiracy to oust her from office.

“We need a sheriff we can trust,” said Supervisor Noelia Corzo, a former Corpus ally. “As a community, we must stand united against lies and corruption.”