Bay Area county supervisors could remove sheriff from office

A Bay Area county may be making history on Tuesday when its supervisors decide if they’ll remove an elected sheriff for alleged misconduct.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus could be stripped of her position by the county’s Board of Supervisors after an investigation into her office leadership last year “outlin[ed] allegations of corruption, workplace misconduct, and an inappropriate relationship with her former chief of staff, Victor Aenlle,” the Mercury News reports.

“Corpus has denied the allegations and refused to step down so far,” the paper added.

It will take four of five supervisors voting to remove Corpus for her to lose her position, though she would be able to appeal if the vote goes against her.

Supervisors got the ability to remove a sheriff in March, when 84% of voters in a special election chose to give the board that power.

Late last year, KQED noted that recall efforts against sheriffs are exceedingly rare in California, and “removing a county’s top law enforcement officer has rarely been successful.”

“Sheriff recalls are actually so rare that it’s pretty hard to come up with a very consistent typology or information about recalls,” said Jessica Pishko, a journalist and attorney who studies the power of sheriffs, told KQED.