San Mateo Co. court judges worry about their safety, claim deputies asleep on the job

SAN MATEO, Calif. (KGO) -- San Mateo County Superior Court judges are raising concerns for their personal safety after several incidents of deputies, who should be watching potentially dangerous criminals, falling asleep or otherwise failing to do their jobs.

The I-Team has obtained correspondence between the judges and the sheriff who oversees the court deputies, and it gets worse. A deputy makes the mistake of escorting a female inmate with three males and turns his back while she is sexually assaulted in an elevator.

The sharp exchange of letters and emails between presiding Judge Stephanie Garratt, Judge Elizabeth Lee and Sheriff Christina Corpus from December is now coming to light after a public records request. The judges expressed concern "for frequent lapses in security protocols causing the potential for serious harm to other judges, court staff, attorneys, litigants and the public."

The judges declined my request for an interview, but the I-Team spoke with longtime District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

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Dan Noyes: "How unusual is that for a presiding judge and another judge actually to send a letter to the sheriff over concerns for deputies?"
Steve Wagstaffe: "I've been here 50 years. It's first time I ever heard of it."

The judges list:

• several instances of armed deputies falling asleep in court when they were was supposed to be monitoring murder defendants,


• jurors complaining that bailiffs were on their phones playing games and doing internet searches during trial,


• an unshackled murder defendant in plain clothes allowed to wander the back hallway near the judges' chambers.

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"Somebody charged with homicide, unshackled, wandering around in the back. That's a major cause for concern," Wagstaffe said.

The most shocking of all was a deputy ignoring protocol, escorting three male inmates and a female back to jail from court. The judges said he kept his back turned long enough for the woman to be raped twice in an elevator.

Wagstaffe: "That deputy was horrible in what he failed to do."
Sheriff Christina Corpus: "We did release him immediately because of the egregiousness of, you know, his lapse in judgment."

Wagstaffe told us there was not enough evidence to charge the male inmate with sexual assault and that "there was one element missing, and that is to be able to show that this action that occurred was against the will of our victim."

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Christina Corpus says she's been beefing up court staff, hiring 182 sworn employees in the past two years--many of them from other police and sheriff departments -- and that she responded quickly to the judges' letter by ordering new training.

"I took immediate action and went back to the lieutenant and the captain to work directly with the judge, open the lines of communication so there's no lapses," Corpus said.

We wanted to get the union's response to these issues, so we stopped by the Deputy Sheriffs Association offices for an interview, but a spokesperson told us, "It's not going to happen, sorry. They don't want to get involved in this. Not worth it."

The union has been funding the vote for Measure A campaign that would allow the board of supervisors to fire Sheriff Corpus.

MORE: San Mateo County leaders urge community to vote 'yes' on removal of Sheriff Christina Corpus

Judge Garratt placed responsibility for the courthouse problems with Sheriff Corpus, writing, "We never had these problems of this magnitude until this past year."

"I've worked in this office for 25 years," Corpus said. "So, I know when it's good, and I know when it's bad. And so, we have had bouts of different circumstances where our staffing levels are higher -- they're low. And so, for it to be attributed just to me and my tenure, I don't think that was a very fair statement."

Corpus has filed for an injunction to stop the special election on Measure A. The hearing is now exactly two weeks away.

Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.