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By Alise Maripuu
The attorneys defending San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus in the hearing for her removal called multiple witnesses to the stand on Thursday, with some testifying on Corpus’ leadership and the challenges she’s faced in role.
The 10-day hearing is part of the county’s process to oust Corpus, who remains defiant against calls for her resignation following the release of a county-commissioned investigation conducted by retired judge LaDoris Cordell. The 400-page report accused Corpus of having a romantic relationship with her chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, and that the pair fostered a culture of intimidation and retaliation in the Sheriff’s Office.
Retired judge James Emerson was selected by both sides to oversee the hearing.
Nearly all of the witnesses who testified on Thursday are allies of Corpus, defending her character and approach to policing.
Reynold Jennings is a Half Moon Bay resident and member of Fixin’ San Mateo, a nonprofit that advocates for civilian oversight in the sheriff’s office. While several members of Fixin’ San Mateo have been open in their advocacy for Measure A and the removal of Corpus, Jennings called the Cordell report and the board’s efforts to remove her a “modern day lynching” because of her Latina identity.
He thought that the board held a different standard with Corpus because of her identity, and that supervisors were “degrading her,” he said.
“I felt that this doesn’t happen when we’re working with men or white men,” Jennings said.
Jennings, a Black man and proponent of reshaping law enforcement’s relationship to people of color, said that Corpus’ leadership and modern approach to policing has increased diversity in the sheriff’s office and helped improve relations between Half Moon Bay’s non-white population and law enforcement.
“My experience growing up was very different,” Jennings said emotionally in reflecting on his experiences with law enforcement. “Mine was to run from, and I am teaching my son to walk to, and that can’t happen without this kind of change.”
Corpus’ attorneys also tried to further back up their claims that Corpus is simply being targeted for her race and gender by calling Assistant Sheriff Sergio Enriquez to the witness stand.
Enriquez, who recently filled the vacant role of assistant sheriff i n mid-June, also praised Corpus’ work ethic and vision for the Sheriff’s Office.
“I want to say something about Sheriff Corpus that I don’t say about too many people. The woman’s got grit,” Enriquez said. “She has courage. In contemporary policing, that’s exactly what’s required.”
Enriquez, who spent nearly 30 years in the Santa Ana Police Department and worked his way up to serve as its chief of police, said he joined the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office because he believed in Corpus as a leader and thought his outside perspective could help improve operations.
“You have a sheriff who is willing to step up and do the right thing, and that’s hard,” Enriquez said.
He also spoke about his opinions on the Sheriff’s Office Professional Standard Bureau, or PSB, which is in charge of recruiting and investigating internal affairs complaints against sworn and non-sworn employees.
Upon receiving a complaint, officers in PSB will conduct an investigation and then relay their findings and recommendations on potential punitive measures for an employee to the captain overseeing the unit. But it’s up to the sheriff to ultimately take action and make a decision, such as terminating an employee or placing them on administrative leave.
When reviewing the recommendations for the 38 pending internal affairs cases in PSB, Enriquez observed that penalties for non-white employees were harsher than for white employees. When asked if he was concerned about racial disparities in the recommended actions for each case, Enriquez replied “yes.”
Another witness who testified was James Johnson, a Redwood City resident with close ties Tom Perez, one of Corpus’ attorneys. Perez also served in the White House as a senior adviser to former President Joe Biden and as the U.S. Secretary of Labor for former President Barack Obama.
Johnson testified for only about five minutes, solely relaying an encounter he had with County Executive Mike Callagy.
Johnson described a moment in which he confronted Callagy at the Faith and Spirits cocktail bar in San Carlos sometime in November 2024.
After asking Callagy why he was behind removing Corpus, Callagy looked at Johnson with an angry look and kept repeating the phrase, “I have a process in place,” according to Johnson’s testimony.
However, Johnson’s testimony at the hearing did not line up with previous statements he has made describing what Callagy said that night.
Johnson was one of the interviewees in the county-commissioned investigation into allegations Corpus made against Callagy in September 2024. The investigation was conducted by Oppenheimer Investigations Group, which specializes in evaluating workplace complaints.
Corpus accused Callagy of abusing his power, bullying, and sexual discrimination. The report, which was released in May this year, cleared him of all the allegations.
According to the Oppenheimer report, Johnson told investigators that during the encounter at the cocktail bar in San Carlos, Callagy said “I know what I’m doing. I know what I need to do in order to remove the Sheriff. I know how to get her out.”
In his interview for the report, Johnson also said he believed Callagy is working together with former sheriff Carlos Bolanos and San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe “to remove Corpus because she does not follow their norms,” the report reads.
The county’s attorneys declined to cross-examine Johnson, thus concluding his short testimony.
Johnson has also been a vocal supporter of Corpus outside the courtroom, speaking at board of supervisors’ meetings and making critical posts of the board’s efforts to remove Corpus on Nextdoor, a social media platform for neighborhoods.
He also worked for Perez when Perez was elected to serve as chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2017. Each of his 13 posts on Nextdoor either condemn the board’s attempts to oust Corpus, or praise Perez for taking up Corpus’ case.
In a comment to one his posts on Nextdoor from two weeks ago, Johnson said he “personally connected him with Sheriff Christina Corpus because of the reckless and undemocratic process the Board of Supervisors is trying to force through.’
Court ended early at 1:30 p.m. as Corpus’ counsel finished calling all of its witnesses.
Friday is the final day of the proceedings, with Corpus expected to return to the stand at 9 a.m., followed by closing statements.
Emerson announced to the court that as of Thursday morning, Corpus’ attorneys had spent a total of 28 hours of examination, versus the county’s legal team who have used 19 hours of examination since the hearing began. Each side has up to 35 hours each to make their case, according to county spokeswoman Effie Milionis Verducci.
The hearing is one of the final stages of the county’s lengthy process to remove Corpus, giving her the public opportunity to address the allegations against her. Both the county and Corpus’ legal team agreed to have retired judge James Emerson oversee the hearing.
Instead of holding a recall election, the board of supervisors took the unprecedented step of putting a charter amendment, Measure A, on the ballot that would grant the Board the authority to remove Corpus. In March’s special election, voters overwhelmingly approved the measure.
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