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In the wake of a landslide special election to oust San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus, claims and lawsuits have been flooding into county offices.
Under the California Government Claims Act, before an individual can file a lawsuit against a government agency, they must submit a claim and wait 45 days for the government agency to either reject or accept the claim.
Recently, County Executive Mike Callagy filed a $10.5 million claim against Corpus.
In addition, former Assistant Sheriff Ryan Monaghan filed a $5 million claim against members of the sheriff’s office for retaliation.
Union official Carlos Tapia, who was wrongly arrested for timecard fraud, according to the district attorney’s office, filed a claim against Corpus and others that was denied by the county. In his claims, new details of Corpus and her Chief of Staff Victor Aenlle’s efforts to dispel rumors about their alleged affair.
Aenlle filed his own claim against San Mateo County, alleging he should have been represented in a separate lawsuit alleging retaliation. The county denied his claim as well.
Monaghan files claim
Monaghan has filed a $5 million claim against Corpus, Aenlle and Undersheriff Dan Perea alleging retaliation and wrongful termination.
The filed claim seeks punitive damages for alleged transgressions throughout Monaghan’s tenure with the Sheriff’s Office from March 2024 to March 2025. The claim recounts multiple occasions in which Monaghan was purposefully excluded from meetings, misleading communication and acts of intimidation from Corpus and Aenlle, all of which began after former Undersheriff Chris Hsiung resigned in June.
“I think that the more people are willing to come forward to publicly recount the culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation that is present in the Corpus administration, I would imagine that there is going to be a reinforcing effect,” said Charles Stone, an attorney representing Monaghan.
In the days leading up to Monaghan’s termination, he confirmed to Aenlle that he had spoken to retired Judge LaDoris Cordell as part of her investigation of the Sheriff’s Office in September, according to the claim.
Aenlle allegedly responded with, “When were you planning on telling us?” The claim states that Monaghan believes this was an attempt to intimidate a witness given that Aenlle was a subject of the county’s investigation.
Monaghan spoke to Corpus about his interaction with Aenlle, however she expressed that she did not believe it was inappropriate for Aenlle to be questioning others on the investigation, the complaint reads.
In September, the sheriff held a press conference announcing plans to create a childcare center for children of employees. The claim alleges that the executive team had a regularly planned meeting set at the same time of the conference, yet no one alerted Monaghan about changes in the schedule. He was later told that this was intentional, according to the claim.
Three days after Monaghan was confronted by Aenlle and two days after he informed Corpus, Undersheriff Perea called Monaghan into the Sheriff’s Office headquarters to meet with Corpus in her office.
During this meeting, “Corpus began to cry and told Assistant Sheriff Monaghan she was ‘disappointed in him’ because of ‘things’ she had heard Assistant Sheriff Monaghan had said about her,” according to the claim. She was also upset that Monaghan had not checked up on her in light of the negative press coverage.
The conversation between Corpus and Monaghan allegedly halted after he explained how he had been treated differently since Hsiung’s departure. Hee was interrupted by Perea and was told “that was not to be part of the discussion,” according to the claim. Monaghan was then asked to turn in his badge, gun and ID.
“There was never any indication that Assistant Sheriff Monaghan’s termination was based on performance issues nor was he afforded the due process required when an employee is being terminated for cause,” said the claim.
Stone said that he “can’t imagine [Monaghan’s claim] is going to be the last.”
From the claim’s filing date, the county has 45 days to reject or accept it. If no action is taken or the claim is rejected, Monaghan will be able to start the process of filing a lawsuit. Stone clarified that it’s common for public entities to take more than the given time to evaluate a claim, so he’s uncertain of how it will move forward.
County denies claim by Tapia
Tapia, a sheriff’s union official who was wrongly arrested according to the district attorney’s office, filed a claim against the county, Corpus, Aenlle and other Sheriff’s Office officials. In his claim, he alleges Aenlle and Corpus pressured Tapia to dispel rumors about their alleged affair and that he has been effectively put on house arrest.
His claim was unanimously denied by the Board of Supervisors on March 25, 2025.
In November, Corpus allegedly called Tapia in tears after Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox, who is also named in the claim, told her that Tapia was present when another employee accused Corpus and Aenlle of having an affair. Corpus felt Tapia should have used his power as president of the union to stop employees from speaking about her, according to the complaint. Aenlle followed up with Tapia, expressing his “disappointment” for not doing more to “handle the situation,” according to the complaint.
In April 2024, Anelle allegedly spoke to Tapia after former Deputy David Wozniak filed a lawsuit against Corpus and the Sheriff’s Office. The claim alleges he was retaliated against for not endorsing Corpus and that Wozniak had “[expletive] up” and was “going to pay,” according to the lawsuit. Aenelle added that he had “a lot of money.”
The claim also said that Aenlle had threatened lawsuits if Tapia did not retract critical statements he made at a press conference.
The claim says that since his arrest, Tapia has been on administrative leave that requires him to be in his house and reachable from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of a one-hour lunch break. “Effectively, Tapia was on a monitored house arrest 40 hours a week,” the claim says. He is also unable to claim overtime, which the claim says significantly reduced his pay.
The claim says that he has been allowed to go to the union office, but is barred from the Sheriff’s Office, which prevents him from representing union members.
Tapia’s claim demands he is paid for loss of overtime, damages including punitive, attorney’s fees, and other remuneration. The claim says this will exceed $10,000.
County denies claim by Aenlle
Aenlle filed a claim against the county because he was not represented in a retaliation lawsuit by Wozniak.
Aenelle’s claim alleges that the county should have represented him in Wozniak’s lawsuit, even though he admits he was an independent contractor. His claim cites a California law that requires governments to represent their employees if they are sued for performing their duties. The definition of employee in the statute explicitly excludes independent contractors.
The county board of supervisors unanimously voted to deny his claim on March 25, 2025.
Not sure if my comments will go through, but Almanac needs to go back and look at the original court filings brought by Carryn Barker against the San Mateo Sheriff’s office for sexual harassment. Almanac did multiple stories on this lawsuit. The original complaint cites D J Wozniak for misconduct concerning his viewing of pornogprahy on his office computer , and yet he is now suing Corpus for being demoted? At the very least the Almanac needs to review this
Corpus and her boyfriend are costing the taxpayers of San Mateo County a fortune. I hope there’s a way to go after her for some of what she did. A lot of it seems to be blatantly illegal and hopefully the district attorney will have the spine to go after her for her actions. In addition to that I hope they go after her financially.
Can you explain what is “illegal?” about her actions? Were they more “illegal” than getting caught in an FBI sting in a Las Vegas brothel where there were underaged trafficked girls were found? Is this a case of insiders in the Sheriff’s office feeling threatened by an outsider? God knows that office needs reform.