Embattled San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus, who has spent the last year defiantly refusing calls to resign, faced a final vote by county supervisors Tuesday, who voted unanimously for her removal.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting Tuesday morning to vote on whether to remove Sheriff Christina Corpus. Following a public comment session, and a closed session to discuss confidential matters, the supervisors took their vote around 12:45 pm, unanimously approving the motion to remove Corpus. A four-fifths majority of the five-member board required.

It's been nearly a full year since the release of a damning report about Corpus's conduct, and alleged conflicts of interest. The vote comes one week after the retired judge who presided over her administrative appeal hearing presented his 42-page conclusion on the matter of cause for removal. And Judge James Emerson found multiple reasons why supervisors should want to fire Corpus, including the conflict of interest surrounding her relationship with Victor Aenlle, who previously served as her chief of staff.

"Although vehemently denied by appellant and Victor Aenlle, the evidentiary record is highly suggestive that appellant Sheriff Corpus and Mr. Aenlle were in a romantic extra-marital relationship," Emerson wrote in the report. "Corpus elevated her own interest in the close personal relationship she held with Mr. Aenlle above her obligation to appoint, recruit, select, and/or retain based upon merit and in conformity with the principles of equal opportunity."

Emerson also found there was ample evidence to suggest retaliatory action by Corpus against Deputy Carlos Tapia, who is the president of the deputies' union. The morning that the independent investigative report into Corpus was published, November 12, 2024, Corpus had Tapia arrested on suspicion of timecard fraud. Tapia had been one of the multiple members of the department who cooperated with the investigation and provided testimony in the report.

The charges against Tapia were later dismissed.

Emerson presided over a 10-day hearing in which Corpus presented her own testimony and witnesses, and the county called their own witnesses. As the San Mateo Daily Journal reports, a total of 36 witnesses testified in the hearing, and 174 exhibits were admitted into evidence.

That hearing and appeal process came over five months after voters in the county overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment in a special election in March that made such a removal possible.

At this morning's hearing, the public comment portion included statements from former employees of the sheriff's department — including one former deputy, who called out the damage that Corpus's actions caused for multiple careers, including his own.

"I am retired now, but I still care deeply about the department," the deputy said. "Make no mistake, Christina Corpus is not a victim. She is a corrupt tyrant and it is the will of the people that she be removed from office."

As KTVU reports, Corpus herself took to the podium to speak once again in her own defense Tuesday morning, saying that this entire process has been motivated by bias and "personal ill."

Separately, Corpus has been facing a civil grand jury proceeding the intent of which of is to determine if there is cause for her removal from office. With her removal effective immediately today, it's not clear if that other proceeding will still occur.

Previously: Judge Finds Multiple Grounds For Removing San Mateo County Sheriff From Office