Those are just a few of the allegations contained in a lawsuit filed on behalf of former San Mateo County Sheriff Captain Brian Philip. He resigned in November after refusing to arrest the head of the department’s deputy sheriffs union, which the district attorney determined was done without any evidence of a crime being committed.
Philip is one of several leaders in the sheriff’s office who have been fired or quit since Corpus took office in 2023. The lawsuit alleges that several people face retribution after encouraging fellow employees to unionize.
Also this week, San Mateo city leaders unanimously cast a vote of no confidence in Corpus’ leadership, urging voters to pass an amendment to the county’s charter that would temporarily grant them the authority to vote Corpus out of office, a move that has never been done in California before.
Corpus has repeatedly stated she will not bow to calls for her to resign. Others have urged Corpus to resign, including state and federal lawmakers, command staff of the sheriff’s office and other municipalities in Corpus’ jurisdiction.
In a statement, the county said it had yet to be served with Philip’s lawsuit and would “review the allegations in detail and respond” when it does.
The county did, however, hire retired Judge Ladoris Cordell last year to investigate an “unprecedented” number of complaints against Corpus and her alleged boyfriend, Victor Aenlle, who Corpus appointed to “executive director” before supervisors terminated the unsworn position late last year. Cordell wrote that she found that Corpus and Aenlle’s leadership was rife with “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest and abuses of authority,” including denying their relationship was anything more than professional.
Philip participated in Cordell’s investigation in September, telling her about “Aenlle’s aggressive behavior towards Captain Philip,” and requests to serve a sheriff’s office employee with an “illegal” notice that they were under an internal investigation. Shortly after, Corpus, Aenlle — “a real estate agent who failed the background check required to become a sworn officer at [the] San Mateo Police Department” — and other department leaders sought to retaliate against Philip, the lawsuit states.
They eventually called on Philip to arrest Carlos Tapia, the head of the sheriff’s deputies union, shortly after leading the union to cast a vote of no confidence in Corpus’ leadership.
Corpus accused Tapia of timecard fraud, which Philip’s lawsuit states is what “leadership of San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office [does] when it wants to retaliate against an employee.”
“Sheriff Corpus thought she would be killing two birds by throwing one stone, but she ended up tossing a boomerang that returned this lawsuit and Carlos Tapia being cleared,” Philip’s lawsuit states.
Instead of arresting Tapia, Philip resigned in protest, and in December, San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe found “there was no basis to believe any violation of law had occurred” in Tapia’s case.
Philip was one of a handful of department leaders that Corpus brought into her office when her term began in January 2023. At the time, Philip had been with the Palo Alto Police Department for nearly two decades.
“Corpus was looking for a lackey. Instead, she found Captain Philip,” the lawsuit states.
Zak Franklin, an attorney representing Philip, said when Corpus recruited Philip, he soon found the sheriff wanted him not to serve the people of San Mateo County, but merely her own political interests.
“That’s not something he signed up for,” Franklin told KQED Saturday. “He took a stand against it, and he got retaliated against quite a bit, but kept trying until he really couldn’t do it anymore.”
