The focus of Day 4 in the removal hearings of San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus was her decision to arrest and jail one of her chief critics, deputies union president Carlos Tapia, on timecard fraud charges. His arrest is viewed by county officials as evidence that Corpus retaliated against those who she saw as her enemies. Among the witnesses today was former Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox.
Tapia was arrested on Nov. 12, hours before a scathing report by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell was issued about Corpus and her former chief of staff, Victor Aenlle. The report said the two were more than friends and were running the sheriff’s office through retaliation and intimidation.
Corpus is appealing the county Board of Supervisors’ decision to fire her due to allegations of corruption. Since the public hearing is not being live-streamed, the Post is posting updates from reporter Adriana Hernandez, who is in the courtroom. Check this page throughout the day for Hernandez’s latest.
11 a.m. — Lt. Brandon Hensel, who was Deputy Carlos Tapia’s boss in the transportation unit, said that he was confused when Corpus approached him, saying they may need to review Tapia’s attendance.
Hensel said that Corpus approached him sometime between August and September 2024, saying Tapia’s attendance needed to be checked after the unions held a press conference to announce they had voted to declare they had no confidence in her. Hensel said Coprus didn’t elaborate, but he also didn’t ask any further questions.
“He was very consistent. Somebody we could call if we were in a pinch,” Hensel said about Tapia.
Tapia would work on Fridays in the transportation unit and on the other days at the deputies’ union, of which he is president, Hensel said.
Hensel said he “never had a reason” to be concerned about Tapia’s attendance.
The county’s legal team produced a Transportation Daily Board, which is a schedule made by sergeants for the morning and afternoon tasks of the day.
Hensel said he was shocked when then Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox ordered him to review Tapia’s attendance from August 2024 to October 2024. Fox later also ordered him to review Tapia’s attendance from January 2024 to October 2024, Hensel said.
Hensel sent a note to Fox on Oct. 24, 2024, saying he didn’t see any issues and Tapia would always communicate when he wouldn’t be in attendance.
Christopher Ulrich, an attorney representing Corpus, told Hensel before asking him any questions that he wasn’t “trying to get” him but was surprised by his responses.
Ulrich asked who created the daily schedules, to which Hensel replied that other sergeants were responsible, which is why they are 90% accurate, given that humans are prone to mistakes.
Ulrich brought out boards with various months of 2024. He asked Hensel to mark the dates Tapia reported overtime hours. Over 25 requests were reviewed and Hensel would mark them on the calendar with a green marker. With a bright red marker, Ulrich asked Hensel to write “reject” on the requests he would deny.
Hensel said that with his training, he would have returned the requests, asked for further explanation and requested that they be resubmitted.
The county’s attorneys tried to object, but Hearing Officer James Emerson allowed it because of Hensel’s expertise.
Ulrich also presented 28 pages of previous union president David Wozniak’s weekly timesheets for various dates. It showed he had made no requests for overtime due to union work, according to Hensel.
Ulrich asked Hensel to retell the moment Corpus talked to him about needing to check Tapia’s time cards. Hensel said that Corpus had called him weeks after the union’s press conference.
Noon — Hensel said he always had “a solid working relationship” with Corpus and she was fair to him. Corpus would always check in with him regarding the staffing issues in the transportation unit, according to Hensel.
Ulrich asked Hensel if he would ever go to the fifth floor at 330 Bradford St. where Corpus’s and the executive team’s office was located. Hensel said he had been there a few times. Ulrich said he had multiple key card records of him going.
Ulrich brought a memo that stated the department was in “crisis mode” because of the lack of employees.
Ulrich asked if Tapia’s not being able to work more than one day a week placed the department at a disadvantage. Tapia is able to perform union duties while on the clock.
Hensel said that even if Tapia was there, the department would still be at a disadvantage, but it could’ve been one of the factors.
Hensel said that he didn’t remember having any previous conversations with Corpus regarding Tapia, except for one phone call where she suggested moving Tapia to the jail, which is run by the sheriff.
2:45 p.m. — Franco Muzzio, one of the county’s attorneys, questioned Lt. Brandon Hensel again about boards the attorneys created showing various months in 2024. Hensen was asked earlier in the day to mark the days in green that Tapia had asked for overtime, and mark the days in red where the OT request had been denied.
Hensel indicated there were days he would have rejected Tapia’s requests for overtime because he lacked information.
Muzzio showed Hensel a spreadsheet that was previously brought to evidence, showing that Tapia had filled out his requests properly, according to Hensel. Muzzio referred to the boards and the spreadsheet and asked if each overtime request had the proper information, to which Hensel would responded in the affirmative.
Muzzio went through the various boards and stopped at June because it was his birthday month and though he had made his point by then, he said.
Ulrich stepped up to ask further questions about the information in the spreadsheet and Hensel was dismissed.
When the next witness was called in, Ulrich asked to submit the boards into evidence, but Muzzio objected because he proved them wrong during his questioning. Hearing Officer James Emerson told Ulrich that he should’ve submitted them when Hensel was there and Ulrich said he could still call him in.
Ulrich asked to submit the boards as evidence because they contributed to Hensel’s testimony.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to establish,” Emerson said to Ulrich.
Ulrich said he was trying to establish that the sergeants weren’t doing their job.
Emerson declined to accept the boards as evidence.
3:15 p.m. — Van Enriquez, a payroll supervisor for the county, testified that he reviews timecards to see if they were submitted with the correct codes that could distinguish the type of pay.
Enriquez said he received an email from the sheriff’s director of finance, Stacey Stevenson, asking him to email Tapia to tell him to start using the correct code when he is doing union work. Stevenson asked to be blind copied on the Tapia email, or to have the email forwarded to her.
Enriquez said that after he relayed the information to Tapia, Tapia said he didn’t have access to the code. Enriquez then conducted an investigation where HR allowed Tapia to use another code instead of the one Stevenson asked to be used, he said.
Enriquez said that he found that sometimes Tapia would punch in the wrong codes, causing him to be underpaid.
Muzzio asked Enriquez about the special pay Tapia would receive automatically for his union work. Enriquez said that Connor Santos-Stevenson sent him an email changing the code for Tapia to punch in for special pay.
Muzzio asked Enriquez if Santos-Steveson was related to anyone. Enriquez said Stacey Stevenson.
Connor Santos-Stevenson is Stacey Stevenson’s son, according to the Keker report on the sheriff’s office.
Enriquez said that Aenlle called him two to three weeks before Tapia was arrested, asking him how to remove Tapia’s special pay. Enriquez told Aenlle that it was a part of the contract between the union and the county.
Aenlle asked him again how to remove special pay for Tapia. That occurred on the day Tapia got arrested and Enriquez gave him the same answer he said.
Corpus’ attorney, Christopher Ulrich, asked Enriquez about how overtime is approved and the different codes that could be used and for what.
“I’m just trying to find out what’s going on here,” Ulrich said.
4 p.m. — Former Assistant Sheriff Matthew Fox took the witness stand next. Fox resigned in the days after the Cordell report was released. Fox’s attorney previously told the Post that he resigned due to “dysfunction and disarray.”
Fox said he was always supportive of Corpus and even helped her put campaign signs around Daly City when she was running for sheriff.
Fox said that he would see Corpus and Aenlle together when he was working with them on the transition team. Corpus formed a transition team between the election in June 2022 and January 2023, when she was sworn in. For said Corpus would always have the same opinion as Aenlle or support his ideas.
Corpus was the one who directed the investigation into Tapia and gave him the assignment to look into his timecards, Fox said.
Fox said he noticed “minor discrepancies” when he was reviewing Tapia’s timecards. He also noticed that Tapia had used different codes to differentiate when he would be doing union work.
Fox said that Aenlle called a meeting with Joann Lov, who worked in payroll, to review Tapia’s timecard and payroll records on Oct. 29, 2024. Aenlle said he trusted Lov as the point of contact during the investigation, Fox said. Undersheriff Dan Perea was also at the meeting, according to Fox.
Corpus testified under oath that Aenlle did not take part in the investigation into Tapia.
5 p.m. — Fox sometimes looked at Corpus during some of his answers, but she had her head down.
Evidence against Tapia included the claim he used the wrong codes for entering his hours on his time card. But Fox said he noticed Tapia started using the correct codes and didn’t think there was a need to continue the investigation. Fox suggested placing Tapia on administrative leave to buy more time to investigate further, but Corpus did not agree, he said.
Fox also suggested letting the District Attorney’s office take over the investigation as he had in the past. Corpus said she didn’t trust the DA’s office because County Executive Mike Callagy’s daughter worked there, Fox said. Corpus is at odds with Callagy.
Fox knew he didn’t have the authority to conduct an investigation, so he sent a memo to Undersheriff Dan Perea, he said. Perea said to take his response as direction to start the investigation, but Corpus gave Fox orders to do so beforehand, Fox said.
Fox said he wrote a report after his investigation that it was “evident” that Tapia understood the differences in the codes when he started using the right ones.
Fox sent Corpus a copy of the report and Corpus made the decision to arrest him, he said.
Muzzio asked Fox if he knew if Corpus had reviewed the report. Fox responded, “I would hope so.”
Fox said that there were documents he didn’t review, such as Tapia’s overtime reports, key card records and surveillance video, because Corpus told him not to. His investigation spanned three and a half weeks, Fox said.
FINAL 5:30 p.m. — Carlos Tapia was arrested the same day that Corpus gave the order to make the arrest, Fox said.
Tapia’s arrest occurred hours before the county released its report by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, which said Corpus and Aenlle were using intimidation and retaliation to run the office.
Former Lt. Brian Philip resigned when he was ordered to arrest Tapia. He is now suing the county. Philip is expected to be called as a witness.
Fox testified that Corpus told him to go to the DA’s office to give them a “heads-up” of the arrest.
Fox met with Chief Deputy District Attorney Shin-Mee Chang for 20 to 30 minutes, giving her a brief rundown of the arrest.
“Matt, if you have probable cause, the DA’s office is not going to tell you can not arrest (Tapia),” Fox said Chang told him.
Chang was uneasy and said this wasn’t the way to go about it or ideal, Fox said. Chang did not review Fox’s report or say he had probable cause to arrest, Fox said.
Fox often looked at Corpus while he was on the stand, and her attorney, Thomas Mazzucco, quickly asked him not to look at her because it was obvious that Fox was getting “emotional.” Corpus would shake her head in disagreement at times when Fox would say she was behind the arrest.
Fox’s jaw dropped in disbelief.
Franco Muzzio, one of the county’s attorneys, asked if testimony could end there. Emerson agreed and court will be back tomorrow at 9 a.m.
ALL of her flat out lies are being exposed by professional, credible and honorable people. Corpus and her boy toy Vicky are completely being exposed as the corrupt, unprofessional, immoral piles of garbage that they are! With her testimony being under oath…this is flat out perjury by her and she should be charged accordingly.
I love these updates but they are hard to read from the end of the day to the beginning. Can you write them from the morning to the afternoon to evening.
This reorganized and re-ordered chronology is a vast improvement in clarity and far better journalistic reporting. Thanks to all those at the Post for being responsive. Thanks also for the dedication in reporting on such an important and historic series of events.