After a district attorney’s announcement Monday that a San Mateo County sheriff’s deputy accused of timecard fraud wouldn’t be charged, Sheriff Christina Corpus said that an “internal review” of the matter would take place.
“While the criminal investigation has concluded, a separate internal review will take place, which is standard protocol when the arrest involves an employee,” Corpus said in a statement Monday afternoon. “The internal review will be conducted by an independent third-party investigator to ensure it is a fair process.”
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office announced earlier in the day that the deputy taken into custody last month for alleged timecard fraud shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place and that an investigation into the matter by the Sheriff’s Office had been “extraordinarily limited.”
Deputy Carlos Tapia was arrested Nov. 12 on suspicion of felony grand theft by false pretenses, and was later released on bond.
On Monday, San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said his office spent the past month reviewing the case and found there were clerical errors in the way work hours were coded, but nothing that showed criminal intent by Tapia.
Tapia shouldn’t have been arrested, and the case is closed, the district attorney said.
“The Acting Assistant Sheriff’s investigation was extraordinarily limited and did not involve necessary follow-up investigation to examine the accuracy of the allegations,” Wagstaffe said in a news release.
Tapia is the president of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association union and has been a vocal critic of embattled Sheriff Christina Corpus’s administration.
The union along with the San Mateo County Organization of Sheriff’s Sergeants said Tapia’s arrest was retaliation for being a whistleblower.
Corpus has come under fire in recent months for allegedly retaliating against Sheriff’s Office employees, using racist and homophobic slurs and giving too much power to her civilian chief of staff Victor Aenlle, who independent investigator and retired Judge LaDoris Cordell found in her 400-page report to be in an inappropriate personal relationship with the sheriff — an accusation Corpus denies.
“The Acting Assistant Sheriff’s investigation was extraordinarily limited and did not involve necessary follow-up investigation to examine the accuracy of the allegations.” District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe
Earlier this month, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted to move forward with a charter amendment that would allow them to remove her from office.
The sheriff has repeatedly refused calls for her resignation that have come from the board and local, state and federal leaders such as U.S. Reps. Kevin Mullin and Anna Eshoo, state Sen. Josh Becker, and Assemblymembers Marc Berman and Diane Papan.
The Sheriff’s Office had arrested Tapia on suspicion of grand theft and obtaining money by false pretenses, alleging timecard theft occurred between Jan. 1 and Oct. 18. The Sheriff’s Office submitted the case to the district attorney for review and prosecution the next morning, Wagstaffe said.
“It is my conclusion that the evidence establishes without question that Deputy Carlos Tapia did not commit grand theft, theft by false pretenses or any sort of timecard fraud,” Wagstaffe said Monday.