San Mateo County sheriff’s appeal hearing is set to begin Monday

The decision means the hearings will continue as scheduled next week.

With the denied motion for a preliminary injunction, Corpus and her legal team will be in the Hall of Justice at 400 County Center in Redwood City on Monday at 9 a.m., for the first of 10 days scheduled for her appeal hearing.

The appeal hearing is the final step in the removal proceedings adopted by the Board of Supervisors after voters approved Measure A in March, which granted the governing body the authority to remove an elevated sheriff for just cause.

Following the under-oath evidentiary hearing, supervisors will make a binding decision whether Corpus will be the first sheriff in the state to be removed from elected office. A four-fifths vote is needed to approve her removal.

In Chhabria’s order, he also noted the court would “decline to take the extraordinary step of interfering with an ongoing local government process, particularly given that Corpus could — if she were somehow able to prevail — get most of the relief she seeks in this lawsuit after the fact.”

Corpus’ legal team also asked supervisors to delay the process themselves.

At the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, the latest addition to Corpus’ legal team — Tom Perez, former secretary of labor and chair of the Democratic National Committee — was given 10 minutes to make his case to delay the upcoming Measure A proceedings.

Perez stated that the civil grand jury trial process — which is a separate, secondary pathway under consideration to remove Corpus — should happen before the Measure A hearings begin “so that the community can weigh in.”

He defended Corpus by citing multiple crude and racist things that were allegedly said to her during her tenure in the Sheriff’s Office.

“What I learned in the course of my experience is that so many cases involve issues of women who were mistreated and communities of color,” Perez said. “When you look at the history of what Sheriff Corpus had to endure, she is a poster child for that.”

Perez quoted something Corpus was allegedly told by an officer, verbatim, which included the N-word and a slur directed toward Mexicans.

“I apologize for using this language but I think it’s important not to sanitize this language because this is what she went through,” Perez said.

Perez also accidentally referred to Corpus as “Mayor Corpus” before correcting himself, subsequently stating “that’s her next job.”

Despite Perez’s attempt, the appeal hearing will continue as scheduled. The hearing will be open to the public.

The civil grand jury hearing — which alleges three counts of retaliation and one count of conflict of interest by Corpus — is scheduled to be held in front of Judge Mark McCannon at 9 a.m. on Sept. 24.