Victor Aenlle’s role in the county remains uncertain, he is undoubtedly central to the chaos that was encapsulated in an investigation into the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office top brass that was released this week, identifying him as a sworn officer-impersonator abusing his power and receiving special treatment.
In a special meeting Nov. 13, the Board of Supervisors demanded Sheriff Christina Corpus resign and also attempted to abolish Aenlle’s role in the Sheriff’s Office — which was technically executive director of administration, though he referred to himself as chief of staff — but Corpus made a last-ditch effort to protect Aenlle by promoting him to assistant sheriff.
Whether this action is allowed has yet to be confirmed by county counsel, but County Executive Officer Mike Callagy said he has the right to — and has — barred Aenlle from accessing any county facility that is not open to the public.
The Sheriff’s Office did not confirm his official promotion.
The turmoil at the Sheriff’s Office emerged amid a labor dispute among deputy sheriff’s and sergeants, which led to an overwhelming no-confidence vote in Aenlle. The Board of Supervisors retained Cordell in July 2024 following an “unprecedented” amount of complaints regarding Aenlle and Corpus, including allegations the two were in a personal relationship, which the Cordell report unequivocally confirmed but Corpus denied.
Relationship
Much of the details outlined in independent investigator Judge LaDoris Cordell’s report following a monthslong investigation are a result of substantiated ongoing rumors that Corpus and Aenlle have a personal relationship beyond mere friendship.
Such a relationship has led Corpus “to relinquish control of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office” to Aenlle “who has far more experience as a Coldwell Banker associate real estate broker than he has in law enforcement,” the report reads.
Accounts of foot rubbing, a peck on the lips in Corpus’ office, intimately feeding one another and text messages of endearment between the two show an ongoing cozy relationship.
In one instance, Aenlle and Corpus went to the firing range at Coyote Point for a private session to qualify the sheriff, who was documented wearing a knee-length dress and high heels. Aenlle ordered the only other employee on-site to leave, so the pair remained alone at the range. No one was there to observe the qualification.
Private qualifications sessions have since been prohibited.
In 2022, Corpus allegedly told an employee “If he ever leaves me, I don’t know how I’ll make it. I won’t survive,” according to the report. To this same employee, Corpus discussed the private conversations she had with Aenlle, and was once instructed the employee to look at wedding venues for the pair.
The employee told Cordell that Aenlle bought Corpus a $1,200 pair of Christian Louboutin boots and gave her cash for $11,000 diamond earrings.
When Corpus was elected in June 2022, she held a watch party and, during her victory speech, she thanked her then-husband. In response, the employee, who was a confidant to Corpus, witnessed a heated argument between the sheriff-elect and Aenlle, who was upset over the recognition.
Three months later, Corpus and Aenlle were seen traveling with her children by a former-sworn employee on a flight to Maui. Both Corpus and Aenlle have changed their story and rationale for being seen together to various people, but Aenlle told Cordell it was purely coincidental, according to the report.
The employee confidant advised Corpus to not hire Aenlle because “it will ruin everything that we worked toward. He’ll ruin you,” the report read.
“I have to,” Corpus is reported saying to the employee.
Corpus has said repeatedly this week that the report is filled with lies. Aenlle did not return a call for comment.
Qualifications, abuse of power
Regardless of the conflict of interest, Aenlle’s qualifications remain in question. Aenlle has maintained he held the title of a Level I Reserve Deputy, in addition to his chief of staff title, but Cordell’s investigation found that he is likely “double dipping”
To be a reserve deputy, one must volunteer a total of 192 hours over the year and attend regular training meetings. It wasn’t until after Cordell reached out to Aenlle for an interview that any volunteer hours at all were recorded between January 2024 to July 2024, according to the report.
Further, the hours he logged — four days after Cordell reached out — were all entered to be located at “headquarters” where Aenlle’s chief of staff office is located. These volunteer hours must be performed in uniform, which employees near his office reported never seeing him in while at the office.
Aenlle has suggested he is third in command, however, as a civilian, he is sixth in the chain of command, after assistant sheriffs and sworn captains, the report claims.
His authority is limited to the supervision of civilian personnel, yet, he has continuously far exceeded his job responsibilities, including improperly giving directives to the sheriff, acting as her bodyguard, and has encroached upon the jurisdiction and work of sworn-officers, according to the report.
“Whether or not Sheriff Corpus has explicitly given Aenlle this wide-ranging power over her Office is not the point,” the report reads. “That the Sheriff permits him to engage in this conduct is clear.”
The Corpus/Aenlle administration engages in retaliation and intimidation
The investigation substantiated 12 individuals who were subject to retaliation from Aenlle and/or Corpus, including former Undersheriff Chris Hsiung and former Assistant Sheriff Ryan Monaghan.
Monaghan spoke with Cordell under a protected status of “informant” under San Mateo County’s Whistleblower Ordinance. Two days after informing Corpus that he spoke with the investigator, he was fired, according to the report.
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Hsiung, after resigning, was denied the opportunity to properly say goodbye to his colleagues, he told Cordell, and was questioned by Aenlle about his loyalties and private conversations after he was no longer employed with the Sheriff’s Office, according to the report. “Aenlle’s and the Sheriff’s inquiries about a former employee’s private affairs are the behaviors of individuals who cannot abide being criticized and who have no compunctions about confronting those critical of them, within or outside of the Sheriff’s Office and no matter how inappropriate,” the report reads.
In one instance, according to the report, Aenlle retaliated against a civilian employee on the eve of her departure from the Sheriff’s Office. Aenlle reportedly approached the employee to address a rumor that she had spoken poorly of him “that even he didn’t believe.”
“[Name of civilian employee (#1)]’s a wonderful person, but she does run a little bit high on anxiety,’” Aenlle said to Cordell. “I was later told by the other admin that she didn’t eat or sleep for three days because of that. So she’s a little bit sensitive; right?”
Almost all the women who were interviewed in the report spoke to the fear and intimidation they felt around Aenlle.
Aenlle has outside employment that has not been approved
All employees within the Sheriff’s Office must receive written approval of the sheriff prior to engaging in any outside employment, which Cordell found Aenlle has failed to do.
Aenlle said he “pretty much stopped” his real estate business as well as his private security company once he assumed his role with the Sheriff’s Office. However, an interviewed employee recalled an instance when Aenlle was out showing houses in 2024, according to the report.
Though he claimed Corpus was aware of the work, he did not fill out the proper applications and documentation to be reviewed by the undersheriff and Corpus, and filed with human resources. Further, Aenlle’s role as an employee of Coldwell Banker Real Estate meant he had a conflict of interest when negotiating the lease for a property in Redwood City. The firm brokered the lease, in which Aenlle was very involved, according to the report.
A civilian employee who was responsible for negotiating leases “to ensure that the best use is made of the taxpayers’ money” told Aenlle that they should negotiate a lower price — from a $35,000 monthly rent with an added $9,000 for the triple net lease financial obligations, the report reads.
Aenlle refused, and since the lease was signed off in September 2023, the property has cost approximately $572,000, and remains vacant, according to the report.
Aenlle claimed he did not think Coldwell Banker Real Estate was responsible for brokering the lease. For this property, Aenlle also did not follow the proper protocol for selecting a construction contractor, according to the report.
Public construction projects require requests for proposals, and county attorneys must review the proposal if the value of renovations proposed are above $500,000. Aenlle told an employee to list the RFP at $450,000, though the employee believed the true value was much higher, according to the report.
Aenlle has access to guns he shouldn’t
On Sept. 24, an employee was directed to give three suppressed rifles — purchased in 2023, 220 arrived four months ago — to the sheriff, undersheriff and Acting Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox. To use the rifles, the three must all attend training classes, which the employee felt remained in question, according to the report.
After hesitating to issue the rifles, the employee received a call from Aenlle who was eager to get the guns in possession. Though the three rifles were designated for his superiors, Aenlle knows the code to the gun safe, according to the report.
Aenlle impersonates a sworn peace officer
Aenlle, when he was employed as chief of staff, wore a gold badge that very closely resembled that of sworn deputy sheriffs. This can “easily deceive any civilian into believe that Aenlle has the authority of a peace officer” which likely means he is in violation of a misdemeanor for willfully wearing a facsimile badge allowing him to impersonate an officer. Corpus could also be at fault for issuing the badge to him, according to the report.
Both Aenlle and Corpus were also found to distribute honorary badges as an identification card to civilians without considering possible civic liabilities or ramifications, according to the report.
Corpus has used homophobic and racial slurs
A civilian employee recalled an instance in 2022 when she was watching a Zoom meeting of then-Sheriff Carlos Bolanos. Then-Capt. Corpus has come up behind the employee to look at the screen, and uttered the N-word twice, directed at Bolanos, according to the report.
In 2022, Corpus sent multiple text messages calling a local city councilmember a slur directed at lesbians, which were documented through screenshots, according to the report.
Corpus repeatedly denied using the slurs described in the report.
Recent action
The morning the report was presented Nov. 12, Carlos Tapia, the president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, was arrested for felony grand theft by false pretenses. Tapia has been a key figure in the effort to expose the Corpus administration’s flaws, and for leading the charge in a labor dispute.
The Board of Supervisors itself provided a no-confidence vote in Corpus Nov. 13 and asked her to resign. The board voted to send the findings to the District Attorney’s Office for criminal consideration, the California Attorney General’s Office, the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, and the county’s civil grand jury.
County staff will now begin preparing an ordinance for a charter amendment to be considered by voters, which could grant the board the ability to remove the sheriff upon specific findings.
This ordinance would include guardrails with specific circumstances under which the board could act in this manner, including specifying that criminality must be found, or evidence that Corpus is not doing her job or there is unethical conduct.
The full 400-page report by Cordell can be accessed at tinyurl.com/5fhfm4sp or in the agenda packet for the Nov. 13 Board of Supervisors meeting.
(3) comments
I told all of you during the election about the compromised character and clandestine agenda of Corpus. I had no idea she was this nasty - but I will say it does not surprise me at all how she spoke about Carlos Bolanos when she thought nobody was watching. I have known Carlos since I was in high school from playing mixed tennis doubles with my mother - he is a good man and genuinely cared about the people of San Mateo County. There was no "good old boys club" - that should be crystal clear now. Carlos did make his mistakes with the whole massage parlor thing - but that doesn't speak to how he did his job as Sheriff. Corpus - just like a typical liberal - she ran her campaign on slander and false promises of rainbows and butterflies - all the while accusing the other of what she planned to do all along. Seems like another Kamala - angry woman who probably got that job on her knees and couldn't shake the bad habits.
KTVU is reporting that Asst. Sheriff Fox and Undersheriff Perea resigned today. Corpus’ executive staff – inner circle (except for Victor) are all gone. Their departure, three days after the Judge’s report was revealed, adds to the credibility of the Judge’s findings. They saw the writing on the wall.
Thanks, Ana Mata, for a comprehensive recap of our “As the Sheriff’s World Turns” local soap opera that ties together various threads. Unfortunately, San Mateo County residents will continue to suffer through this spectacle. We can only hope that law enforcement in San Mateo County will not suffer and this spectacle can remain at the top, so to speak. As always, elections have consequences.
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