For the first time in California history, a county sheriff has been removed from office.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove Sheriff Christina Corpus from office Tuesday, nearly a year after a damning report from a retired county judge found that she likely violated the county’s policy on nepotism and conflicting relationships.
Removing her wasn’t as simple as firing someone. It took a successful San Mateo County ballot measure that asked voters to choose whether to amend the county charter to grant the board that power.
“Today is the end of a tragic, destructive and grossly expensive chapter in San Mateo County history,” said Supervisor Jackie Speier, a former member of Congress. “I had high hopes for Sheriff Corpus. I voted for her, I held a town hall with her on crime prevention. She had great ideas to modernize the office.
“So it’s tragic to see her time as sheriff come down to this.”
Corpus still has 14 days to appeal her removal. San Mateo County Attorney John Nibbelin said the county’s undersheriff will serve as sheriff.
Corpus, appearing in a blue suit at the board meeting, argued adamantly against her removal. She said she was elected as a reformer, and the changes she tried to push through the sheriff’s office were met with first resistance, then outright hostility, when the old guard in power in San Mateo County began working to undermine her.
“I have sacrificed my peace, my marriage, for this job,” Corpus said. “If I lose my position today, I will walk out with my head held very high. I never bowed to intimidation.
“You may remove me from office but you will not erase the truth.”
Corpus’ legal team, which now includes a one-time member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet, made a half-hour presentation arguing against the legality of her removal.
“Culture change is hard,” said Tom Perez, who was labor secretary under Obama and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. “From Day One, there were folks who didn’t want her to succeed.”
The county of San Mateo, one of the wealthiest in the country, has been paying Corpus’ legal bills. If she is removed in two weeks, she will be responsible for her legal costs from that point.
Last week, retired Superior Court Judge James Emerson found cause to remove Corpus after a two-week trial that included a cascade of allegations portraying a chaotic picture of her two-plus years in office.
Emerson found that Corpus had “a close personal relationship outside the boundaries of a professional working relationship” with a subordinate, unlawfully ordered the arrest of the president of the sheriff’s deputies’ union and retaliated against a captain who refused to conduct the union president’s arrest because he believed it violated state law.
If Corpus is not removed, she will return to a unique six-year term afforded to elected members of law enforcement in 2022 when the state moved county sheriff and district attorney races to the presidential election year calendar.
About 25 people spoke during the board’s public comment period. Some came to praise Corpus, others to bury her, none more so than the daughter of the sheriff’s deputies’ union president, whom Corpus ordered arrested last year – something Judge Emerson found was retaliatory.
The sheriff’s office alleged that the union president, Carlos Tapia, was doing union business on company time and falsified the record of his working hours. But an investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office found no reason to charge Tapia, determining that the errors on his time cards were clerical and concluding that Tapia “should not have been arrested.
A captain in the sheriff’s office resigned rather than arrest Tapia, and Tapia alleged in a lawsuit filed against the county that Corpus demanded his arrest as retaliation against him for complaining about her leadership.
Vanessa Lemus-Tapia, Tapia’s daughter, said at the meeting that Corpus was incorrectly claiming credit for reducing crime in San Mateo County when the rate for most major crimes statewide has fallen.
“That was not her doing,” Lemus-Tapia said, before addressing Corpus directly. “Stop fighting this. Restore trust, dignity and integrity to this department.”
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This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
By NIGEL DUARA/CalMatters
CalMatters
