The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on corruption charges involving a purported romance with her former bodyguard.
Cantrell, 53, thus became the first New Orleans mayor in the city’s 307-year history to be charged by the US government with crimes while still in office.
The indictment against Cantrell came after she drew scrutiny for an alleged affair with a now retired New Orleans police officer who had served as her bodyguard. Both Cantrell and the bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, allegedly plotted to foster their personal and romantic relationship while he was clocked in at work and being paid to provide her with protection.
As Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana reportedCantrell also allegedly arranged for Vappie to accompany her on at least 14 out-of-state trips, claiming concerns about her safety that required protection. The trips cost the New Orleans’ city government more than $70,000, not counting Cantrell’s travel expenses, the charging documents filed Friday said.
The pair were also accused of using a city-owned apartment on the edge of New Orleans’ Jackson Square, in its historic French Quarter neighborhood, to spend time together while Vappie was supposed to be on duty.
Cantrell and Vappie, 52, are accused of then seeking to cover up the relationship by using an encrypted messaging program and deleting electronic evidence, as well as lying to federal agents, grand jurors, colleagues and the public.
Their charges include wire fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit both of those crimes, false statements and untrue declarations to a grand jury.
Vappie had already been charged in July 2024 – shortly after he retired from New Orleans’ police force – with wire fraud and lying to FBI agents.
The allegations against him and Cantrell called to mind the 2018 scandal that cost the Nashville mayor, Megan Barry, her job and centered on an affair with her bodyguard, Robert Forrest. Prosecutors who obtained the 2024 charges against Vappie alleged he researched that case online two years beforehand.
Friday’s charges against Cantrell also come after the September 2024 indictment of New Orleans businessman Randy Farrell. Farrell was charged with exchanging gifts with the mayor so that she would allegedly fire a municipal employee who was investigating Farrell’s building inspection company.
Among the alleged gifts were tickets to a January 2019 New Orleans Saints football game, which was being played with a Super Bowl appearance on the line, a cellphone and lunch at an upscale Ruth’s Chris Steak House in the city.
Both Vappie and Farrell had pleaded not guilty to the charges previously filed against them.
While the Donald Trump-led US justice department obtained the indictment against Cantrell about seven months into the Republican’s second presidency, the federal investigation into the mayor began while Joe Biden – her fellow Democrat – was in his second full year in the Oval Office.
The timing of Friday’s indictment coincided with the grand jurors being scheduled to wind down their work. Such panels are typically in place for six months, but this one had been extended twice since first convening in February 2024.
Cantrell’s lawyer, Eddie Castaing, initially limited his media comments to confirming that a grand jury indictment had been returned against his client. He also told the Associated Press that Cantrell’s name was read aloud by a federal magistrate judge as a defendant.
At a press briefing Friday, the interim US attorney in New Orleans, Michael Simpson, accused Cantrell and Vappie of “an incredible betrayal” of the public’s trust in its own government.
Cantrell, a native of Compton, California, had been a New Orleans city council member before winning election as its first-ever female mayor in November 2017.
She succeeded Mitch Landrieu, who later worked for Biden’s White House as its infrastructure czar.
The Cantrell administration’s first four-year term was partly marked by its guiding the city through the Covid-19 pandemic. And, in 2019, New Orleans registered a 47-year low of homicides.
Cantrell was re-elected in November 2021, and her second term has been considerably turbulent.
The federal investigation began with 2022 subpoenas issued regarding an image consultant she employed. Her husband – Jason, with whom she had a daughter – unexpectedly died in August 2023.
And, as the AP noted, her civic profile receded as she locked herself into feuds with a hostile city council while alienating former confidantes as well as supporters. The city council responded by weakening the mayor’s power through voter-approved changes to the municipal governing charter.
Cantrell and her remaining allies maintain that, as a Black woman, she has been treated differently from her male predecessors.
She was term-limited from seeking another stint as mayor and is due to leave office in January. Several candidates have signed up to run to replace her in a primary election set for October.
Only one other person who has served as New Orleans mayor has been charged with federal crimes: Ray Nagin.
Nagin was New Orleans’ mayor when the failure of federal levees there during Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005 destroyed the city and caused about 1,400 deaths. He was convicted in 2014 on charges of bribery, honest services wire fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns and conspiracy, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The Associated Press and WWL Louisiana contributed reporting
