Top Democrat Official Ousted After Scandals Force Historic Removal

California’s first female sheriff made history again — this time for all the wrong reasons.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus was booted from office after an explosive investigation found she handed her alleged lover a cushy top job — then refused to step down even as the scandal spiraled.

Corpus, elected in 2022 as the county’s first Latina sheriff, was accused of carrying on an “intimate relationship” with her hand-picked chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, who was pulling down more than $246,000 a year. The 408-page bombshell report by Judge LaDoria Cordell tore into the department, describing “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest and abuses of authority” as the hallmarks of the Corpus administration.

When HR complaints over the affair surfaced in 2024, Corpus denied any wrongdoing — and even sued the county for $10 million, claiming she was targeted because she was a “Latinx woman.” But the outrage only grew.

After months of controversy, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Oct. 14 to remove her immediately — the first time in county history a sheriff has been ousted. Corpus appeared defiant but visibly shaken, declaring, “You may remove me from office, but you will not erase the truth. I may lose my title, but I will never, ever lose my purpose.”

Public patience had already snapped. In a March referendum, 84 percent of voters backed her removal, approving Proposition A — giving the board the authority to fire her.

Beyond the alleged romance, the former sheriff faced accusations of intimidation and abuse of power inside the department. She and her loyalists claimed the whole thing was payback for her attempt to dismantle what she called the agency’s “good ol’ boys club.”

That “club” had already been dragged into the open in 2022, when a deputy alleged the office tolerated harassment and even pornographic emails.

Texts introduced in court painted a messier picture of Corpus’s private life — including one where she described her marriage as “stressful.” In another, a colleague told her, “You deserve to be spoiled and doted on” and asked for a “pic of your sparklies.”

Corpus insisted the $8,000 earrings mentioned in the report weren’t gifts from Aenlle, testifying that she bought them herself “because her husband would not.”

With her gone, interim sheriff Dan Perea now holds the badge — while Corpus leaves office under a cloud of scandal and betrayal that even California’s liberal voters couldn’t stomach.

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