It's been months of back-and-forth between San Mateo County supervisors and Sheriff Christina Corpus after she was hit with multiple charges following an independent investigation by former Judge LaDoris Cordell, who appears to have omitted 29 pages of testimony in interviews, making the investigation biased.
The medium 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, information Peninsula 360 Press has corroborated.
The recording has raised questions about the objectivity and impartiality of the investigation into the work, performance and actions of Sheriff Christina Corpus, who has not been in charge of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office for even a year.
ABC 7 News' investigative team compared the recording to the transcript included in a 400-page report signed by LaDoris Cordell and found that she omitted 29 pages of testimony.
JUDGE CORDELL: “Have you ever given any directives or any type of orders to Sheriff Corpus?”
VICTOR AENLLE: “What? No.”
JUDGE CORDELL: “Just answer. Listen, man, just…”
VICTOR AENLLE: ?Okay, (laughs) the answer is ?no??.
Prior to his work at the Sheriff's Office, Victor Aenlle, who is chief of staff, previously worked in the real estate sector and in a private security company, however, when he began his work for the local government, he left his other duties behind, which he told the aforementioned media outlet at the time.
That's exactly what Aenlle told Ladoris Cordell, who was hired to investigate the sheriff's office at the request of County Executive Mike Callagy.
JUDGE LADORIS CORDELL: “And it’s a very simple question: do you have any outside employment?”
VICTOR AENLLE: “No, ma’am.”
While Aenlle said he still has his real estate and private investigator licenses, he said his work at the sheriff's office required too much of his time to work anywhere else.
VICTOR AENLLE: “When I took over, I was basically doing the work of three people here. I stopped doing everything completely.”
JUDGE CORDELL: “Understood.”
In his final report, however, Cordell concluded that Aenlle violated sheriff’s office policy by holding “unapproved outside employment,” contrary to his testimony, citing his LinkedIn profile, which says Aenlle continues to work in real estate and private security, and citing an anonymous employee who said Aenlle had been showing houses one day this year.
According to the outlet, former Judge Cordell also concluded that Aenlle had a conflict of interest in negotiating the lease for a new substation and employee daycare center at the site because of her work for Coldwell Banker, and suggested that she may have personally benefited from the deal.
Cordell was also found to have confused two different companies, citing the logo on the letter of intent to lease, CBRE, as a Google search indicating it was Coldwell Banker Real Estate, when it actually stood for CB Richard Ellis, Aenlle said.
The detail and omission is that the judge never bothered to contact the CBRE broker.
In this regard, Aenlle called for the data to be verified.
The outlet concluded that the Board of Supervisors made decisions about the sheriff and her chief of staff based on information that was partly erroneous or incomplete. Aenlle told the outlet that Cordell relied on the word of disgruntled employees without verifying what they said.
In addition, Aenlle's testimony regarding the security of the new Sheriff's Office building was left out, as she said it was necessary and had never been reviewed before.
VICTOR AENLLE: “We had to add an additional $750,000 in security measures to the building to make it safe for employees.”
JUDGE CORDELL: “And that’s only because you detected it and let him know.”
VICTOR AENLLE: “Yes, ma’am. I’m not here to boast about my work. But yes, I mean, I know about construction, and something was missing, and it was an oversight.”
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