Testimony targets Tapia arrest

His arrest followed an investigation conducted by former Acting Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox into Tapia’s time card records and provide a report to the Sheriff’s Office executive team. Two days after Tapia’s arrest, Fox resigned after only serving in the role for less than two months.

On Thursday afternoon, Fox took the stand, testifying under oath his account of the investigation and arrest. 

In October 2024, Fox was directed by Corpus to look into Tapia’s time card coding practices, to check if he was properly coding when he was conducting business on behalf of the DSA or was working in his assigned unit, the transportation bureau.

As union president, Tapia had special accommodations to work a unique shift schedule that allowed him to dedicate the majority of his work week to union matters. He would work specifically in the transportation bureau on Fridays for 10 hours, unless otherwise coordinated with his direct superior. 

Corpus told Fox that the investigation was needed because Tapia’s superior, Lt. Brandon Hensel, who is in charge of the transportation bureau, raised Tapia’s coding habits as a concern to investigate, according to Fox’s testimony. Corpus also testified to this on Tuesday, and that the bureau was having issues with staffing. 

Hensel took the stand Thursday morning, and testified he never reported any concerns regarding Tapia’s attendance or work. 

“I never had any reason to,” Hensel said. 

Hensel affirmed that staffing the transportation bureau have remained a concern his entire tenure as lieutenant in charge of the bureau, and he often spoke to Corpus about this concern and ways to mitigate the shortage. 

Hensel said Tapia was not mentioned in the conversations between Corpus and Hensel until after Tapia was front and center of a press conference announcing the sergeants and deputies unions vote of no confidence against Victor Aenlle — Corpus’ former chief of staff with whom she is alleged to have an in appropriate relationship. 

Details about time cards

On Sept. 17, 2024, the DSA and Organization of the Sheriff’s Sergeants held a press conference addressing their vote of no confidence against Aenlle, raising their concerns that he led by intimidation and cultivated a toxic workplace where staff feared retaliation. 

During Fox’s investigation, when he initially only asked to look at time cards in August and September of 2024, he noticed that Tapia began changing his time code. 

According to the Sheriff’s Office policy manual, union presidents are supposed to code “RTE” when they work on union business. The code for regular business is “001.” 

On Aug. 19, 2024, Stacey Stevenson, the director of Finance of the Sheriff’s Office, emailed Michelle Kuka, the deputy director of the San Mateo County Human Resources department, about Tapia’s time card. 

In the email, Stevenson noted that Tapia did not appear to be using the “RTE” time code, and asked the payroll department, which Kuka oversaw, to remind Tapia to use the proper code for tracking purposes. 

On Aug. 21, Stevenson sent another email to payroll to tell Tapia to use the “RTE” code and to “blind copy or forward me the email,” for records purposes. Van Enriquez, the payroll supervisor, then informed Tapia. 

When Tapia went to fill his time card, he was not able to plug in the “RTE” code, and when Enriquez was made aware of this, Enriquez instructed Tapia to begin using “010” as an alternative code. 

The “RTE” code was a newer code established to signify union work, and was created as an alternative to “010” because of the numbers closeness to “001” which is the code for regular work, Enriquez said. 

On Tapia’s time card for the week of Aug. 25, 2024, Fox noticed he began using “010” instead of “001,” suddenly, which raised a concern that Tapia was aware of the different codes and could have been intentionally miscoding prior to the change, Fox said. 

When Fox noted this sudden change to Corpus in an early report of his investigation, Corpus suggested that the tension between her administration and the union could be an explanation, Fox testified. She did not mention that Tapia was asked by the Human Resources unit in the Sheriff’s Office to change the code, Fox said. 

“I knew there was a lot going on,” Fox said. “It seemed plausible to me.” 

Corpus did not tell Fox that Tapia was asked to change the code, Fox said. The county’s counsel worked to establish that Corpus was aware of the coding request. 

After Fox confirmed through further investigation that Tapia was not using the DSA-related code on his time sheets before August, he believed Corpus’ suggestion that it could have been an intentional shift. Fox said that if Tapia was simply miscoding on an ongoing basis, and didn’t change his code habits in August, it wouldn’t have raised the same speculation. 

“I would have looked into why he’s not doing that,” Fox said, instead of proceeding with the criminal investigation. 

Lead-up to arrest

With the knowledge he had, Fox recommended to Corpus, Aenlle and Undersheriff Dan Perea that, in his professional opinion, Tapia should be placed on administrative leave to allow for further investigation to continue. Corpus didn’t agree to that, Fox testified. 

Fox also recommended handing the investigation over to the District Attorney’s Office, which is typical for criminal investigations. Corpus didn’t want them involved, Fox said.

“She said she didn’t trust the DA investigators” because one was a member of the DSA and County Executive Mike Callagy’s daughter works in the DA’s office, Fox said. 

Fox also testified that Corpus directed him not to investigate Tapia’s key card access records during his investigation — because the contractors associated with key cards are too close to the deputies involved — or surveillance footage, for the same reason. 

Fox’s entire investigation into Tapia and his time card records lasted approximately three weeks, ending approximately the first week in November 2024. 

The morning of Nov. 12, 2024, Corpus decided to place Tapia under arrest. She asked Fox to inform the District Attorney’s Office, and he then spoke to Shin-Mee Chang, the chief deputy district attorney. Fox presented the case and told Chang there was probable cause for the arrest. 

Chang was uneasy and would have preferred that the matter was deferred to the District Attorney’s Office, Fox testified. 

“She said, ‘Matt, if you have probable cause to arrest Carlos Tapia, the DA is not going to tell you you cannot arrest,’” Fox said. 

Fox then relayed the interaction to the sheriff. The county’s counsel asked Fox on the stand if he told Corpus that the District Attorney’s Office affirmed there was probable cause. 

On the stand, Fox reiterated the conversation with Chang, turning to Corpus who sat among her attorneys. 

“That’s what I told you,” Fox said emphatically, appearing frustrated and emotional. 

Corpus’ attorneys objected, and asked the county’s counsel to direct their witness to not address his testimony to their client. Court recessed for the evening immediately after. 

The sheriff removal hearing will continue in court at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 22.