BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
Former San Mateo County Sheriff Chief of Staff Victor Aenlle is trying to get a lawsuit against him thrown out of court.
He and sheriff Christina Corpus have been sued by former deputies union president David Wozniak, who claims he was demoted because a political committee he ran didn’t endorse her for election in 2022.
In his lawsuit, filed on March 19, former Sheriff’s Deputy David Wozniak said Corpus was “hostile and resistant” to the union’s endorsement process ahead of the June 2022 election when she was running against former Sheriff Carlos Bolanos.
Wozniak says he was demoted when Corpus took over, and his attorneys argue that this is because the union’s PAC didn’t contribute to Corpus’ campaign.
Demotion
According to the suit, Corpus demoted Wozniak from acting sergeant to deputy about two weeks after she was elected, the suit states.
Now an attorney for Aenlle has filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss the suit. In response to that motion, Wozniak’s attorneys claim Aenlle interfered with the union by telling a sergeant that the union should vote out their leadership.
The lawsuit says Aenlle was “vocal about his dislike of Wozniak” and viewed his being union president as a “problem” and a “headache” for the sheriff.
Aenlle’s attorneys say that Wozniak’s complaints don’t add up to much.
“The four statements the complaint attributes to him are, at the most, a case of bad-mouthing,” Aenlle’s attorneys wrote.
Aenlle’s attorneys said Wozniak’s claims don’t have facts to back them up.
Wozniak’s attorneys claim is that Aenlle broke the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, a law regulating pertaining to labor relations, by “interfering with the plaintiff’s rights.”
Aenlle’s attorneys contend that the act only pertains to government agencies, not individuals.
No confidence vote
Aenlle has continued to find himself in hot water regarding the unions, who eventually cast a vote of no confidence against him.
The union filed a complaint with a state agency on Aug. 2, saying that Aenlle has encouraged union members to vote out union leadership. The union filed the complaint after a dispute over overtime with the sheriff’s office.
The current union president, Carlos Tapia, was recently cleared of charges of time card fraud that the sheriff’s office brought, arresting him without a warrant on Nov. 12.
Wozniak is seeking to recover the higher pay he would’ve received as a sergeant, including a higher pension.
Wozniak also asks a judge to assess punitive damages on Corpus, Aenlle and the sheriff’s office.
The parties are due to meet in court in San Francisco on Jan. 17 at 9 a.m., according to court records.
Looks like Aenlle’s attorneys are about as wise as he is; I’m amazed he isn’t representing himself in the Federal Court case by Wozniak. “‘The four statements the complaint attributes to him are, at the most, a case of bad-mouthing,’ Aenlle’s attorneys wrote.” Unless something has dramatically changed, I am fairly confident that “bad-mouthing” is the very definition of defamation and it doesn’t sound friendly or supportive. I’m also fairly certain the SMC SO has a policy or procedure that prohibits badmouthing by employees about employees.
So generally in a civil suit, two things need to be proven, causation and damages. How very kind of Aenlle’s counsel to concede the causation of “bad-mouthing” for the Plaintiff in that suit.
In addition, Aenlle is so very proud to boast his position on the Executive Team, whether a contractor or full-time employee, and his closeness to Corpus, that means when he speaks, in or about SMC SO, he really doesn’t have a personal position unless he specifically and deliberately distinguishes his comments as personal ones. Aenlle’s lawyers omitted the personal opinion qualification, to make it clear what the malicious behavior admitted was by default accomplished in Aenlle’s professional capacity.
Perhaps it’s the punitive damages aspect that has caused Aenlle to bring in his own attorneys to represent him. Doing so is not a normal course of behavior. If he is being sued in his official position, one would think the County Attorney would be defending all of the accused. Or does this go as simply another point to demonstrate that Aenlle was ill-prepared to be a contractor, an extra-help employee or a full-time employee in SMC SO?
I’d hope he doesn’t fang his wife’s family trust monies for the attorney bills, as his transition contract was not with his alleged business, but personally as an individual. Then again, I’d hope for a number of things to be dramatically different than they have been and continue to be in this self-induced drama. The beat goes on.
Oh man. It’s so sad that cute little doctor Vicky esquire PHd lost his job, is getting sued and might get arrested soon. Such a hard fall for the cute little guy. I sincerely hope that he feels all of the pain and suffering he deserves. He deserves to be employed, bankrupt and selling trailers in Palm desert. Bye bye you cute little guy. Take the untrustworthy sheriff with you. Shapoo, Gurcia and armanano better hope corpus can get them new jobs, otherwise unemployment is going for those unethical clowns.
Caldwell Banker Real Estate must be very proud to call Victor Aenlle an Associate Broker, hanging his sign in the Half Moon Bay office. I wonder if he can get his job back. I wonder how many are banging the Caldwell Banker company door down to solicit him as their realtor – a CB representative claiming to be honest and truthful, bursting with integrity, is “faithful” and well respected … fun fact!
In the end, how many $M in lawsuits will this cost the County from these folks ?
Take each and every fired, resigned, forced out, wrongfully arrested (Carlos) etc Command Staff people, add in how many Capt’s and lower and and multiply by how much ? Why not crank up a buy out offer (Supvs… are you listening?) to her to say $2M to resign, go away and call it a good deal. But YEARS of lawsuits with many dozens of $M are already being formulated. Fox, Perea …. ? Get her to take the money and move on.
oh and BTW, there’s a new name for the ‘Doc’ going
around,it’s “NonDoc” aka Vicky the non PhD. One thing he
never learned (among many), is in Silicon Valley be VERY careful of
what you claim, as the guy next to you at lunch probably has a real PhD plus
3-5 years of Post Doc from CMU and is also a prof of CS and is humble about
it too. Every PhD I work with hated it and they never speak about it, one
said he threw his dissertation out the window once he was awarded. No one boasts about their torture patrol, except total frauds who did not go through 4-5 years of torture.
But he is such a cute little five foot tall doctor. Doctor Vicky phd esquire used his experience as a real estate agent to make himself a fake cop, with a cute little badge to wear with his uniform. Just remember karma little guy. Everyone at the SO knows you’re a wannabe fraud and a badge bunny. Move to Palm Springs and sell trailers with your sheriff you can’t trust. Here is to you both going bankrupt.
Badge Bunny?.