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San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus has filed a $10 million government claim, reiterating that the sheriff's claims of discrimination, harassment and defamation are “baseless.”
The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office said it is aware of the lawsuit filed by Corpus against the county.
“The filing of a government complaint is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit and Corpus is seeking $10 million,” the city said in a statement.
She also said Corpus' claims in her lawsuit that she has been discriminated against, harassed and defamed, especially for being a woman and a Latina, "are completely unfounded and distract from the problems that give rise to the current circumstances."
In that regard, he explained that the government’s lawsuit, which includes erroneous and misspelled names (including those of the sheriff herself and Supervisor Noelia Corzo), is largely devoid of any purported facts to support its conclusions and blatantly accuses Judge LaDoris Cordell of participating in what the lawsuit calls an “evil scheme.”
San Mateo County said Cordell is a “highly respected former judicial official with decades of public service, including in ensuring law enforcement accountability,” adding that “as an independent investigator, she alone determined how she conducted the investigation.”
The Board of Supervisors further noted that, as to the cost of the investigation, Cordell was contracted to conduct it at a rate of $750 per hour, and the investigation and associated report cost approximately $200,000.
“This is commensurate with both the cost of a complex and sensitive investigation of this nature and the level of experience, expertise and unique qualifications that Cordell brought to the matter,” they said.
They noted that the cost also speaks to the large number of witnesses Cordell interviewed (40 current and former employees) and “the extensive time it took to evaluate the veracity of the large number of complaints Cordell reviewed.”
The full transcript Cordell's interview with Victor Aenlle has been posted on the county website.
In the initial release of Cordell's report, the Board of Supervisors noted, all pages of this interview transcript that Cordell cited or relied upon in his report were included as part of an addendum to the report.
They explained that 29 pages of the transcript were not included in the appendix because, according to Cordell, “they were not important to the report.”
“There was nothing nefarious about these pages not being included in the addendum, but given the interest in them, as mentioned, they are now available on the county website,” they added.
In mid-December 2024, Corpus alleged that Cordell had omitted these 29 pages of testimony, making the investigation biased.
ABC7 News obtained a recording of a more than two-hour interview that led to a scathing report and calls for the sheriff's resignation.
ABC 7 News' investigative team compared the recording to the transcript included in a 400-page report signed by LaDoris Cordell and discovered that she omitted 29 pages of testimony.
You may be interested in: Biased investigation: 29 pages omitted from testimony in San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus case
