{"id":6662,"date":"2025-10-15T21:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/6662\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:24:15","slug":"for-the-first-time-a-california-county-removed-its-sheriff-over-misconduct-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/6662\/","title":{"rendered":"For the first time, a California county removed its sheriff over misconduct allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in California history, a county sheriff has been removed from office.<\/a><\/p>\n

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove Sheriff Christina Corpus<\/a> from office Tuesday, nearly a year after a damning report from a retired county judge found that she likely violated the county\u2019s policy on nepotism and conflicting relationships. <\/p>\n

Removing her wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is the end of a tragic, destructive and grossly expensive chapter in San Mateo County history,\u201d said Supervisor Jackie Speier, a former member of Congress. \u201cI 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s tragic to see her time as sheriff come down to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corpus still has 14 days to appeal her removal. San Mateo County Attorney John Nibbelin said the county\u2019s undersheriff will serve as sheriff. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s office were met with first resistance, then outright hostility, when the old guard in power in San Mateo County began working to undermine her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have sacrificed my peace, my marriage, for this job,\u201d Corpus said. \u201cIf I lose my position today, I will walk out with my head held very high. I never bowed to intimidation. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou may remove me from office but you will not erase the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Corpus\u2019 legal team, which now includes a one-time member of President Barack Obama\u2019s cabinet, made a half-hour presentation arguing against the legality of her removal. <\/p>\n

\u201cCulture change is hard,\u201d said Tom Perez, who was labor secretary under Obama<\/a> and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. \u201cFrom Day One, there were folks who didn\u2019t want her to succeed.\u201d <\/p>\n

The county of San Mateo, one of the wealthiest in the country, has been paying Corpus\u2019 legal bills. If she is removed in two weeks, she will be responsible for her legal costs from that point. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Emerson found that Corpus had \u201ca close personal relationship<\/a> outside the boundaries of a professional working relationship\u201d with a subordinate, unlawfully ordered the arrest of the president of the sheriff\u2019s deputies\u2019 union and retaliated against a captain who refused to conduct the union president\u2019s arrest because he believed it violated state law.<\/p>\n

If Corpus is not removed, she will return to a unique six-year term afforded to elected members of law enforcement in 2022<\/a> when the state moved county sheriff and district attorney races to the presidential election year calendar. <\/p>\n

About 25 people spoke during the board\u2019s public comment period. Some came to praise Corpus, others to bury her, none more so than the daughter of the sheriff\u2019s deputies\u2019 union president, whom Corpus ordered arrested last year \u2013 something Judge Emerson found was retaliatory. <\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s 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<\/a> by the San Mateo County District Attorney\u2019s Office found no reason to charge Tapia, determining that the errors on his time cards were clerical and concluding that Tapia \u201cshould not have been arrested.<\/p>\n

A captain in the sheriff\u2019s office resigned<\/a> rather than arrest Tapia, and Tapia alleged in a lawsuit filed<\/a> against the county that Corpus demanded his arrest as retaliation against him for complaining about her leadership. <\/p>\n

Vanessa Lemus-Tapia, Tapia\u2019s 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<\/a> has fallen. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not her doing,\u201d Lemus-Tapia said, before addressing Corpus directly. \u201cStop fighting this. Restore trust, dignity and integrity to this department.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a> and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in California history, a county sheriff has been removed from office. The San Mateo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4932,387,7,9,8,6973,6972,989,18,843,6971,6975,6970,6974,734,6976,17,6977],"class_list":{"0":"post-6662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-barack-obama","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-carlos-tapia","14":"tag-christina-corpus","15":"tag-elections","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-government-policy","18":"tag-jackie-speier","19":"tag-james-emerson","20":"tag-john-nibbelin","21":"tag-labor-unions","22":"tag-law-enforcement","23":"tag-thomas-perez","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-vanessa-lemus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}