New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted Friday (August 15) in what prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to hide a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie. He’s not off the hook either! Prosecutors accuse him of collecting that city check, even when privately meeting Cantrell in apartments and traveling to vineyards with her.
The City of New Orleans said it was aware of the indictment and that the mayor’s attorney is reviewing it.
“Until his review is complete, the City will not comment further on this matter,” the statement said.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell hasn’t sent out a message on her official social media feed on X since July 15. At the time, she said the city was experiencing historic declines in crime.
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Charges Against The New Orleans Mayor & Bodyguard
According to the Associated Press, Mayor Cantrell faces charges of conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction. This comes less than five months before she leaves office due to term limits. She was the first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history and was elected twice. However, she now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office.
“Public corruption has crippled us for years and years,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said, referring to Louisiana’s notorious history. “And this is extremely significant.”
Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, was already facing wire fraud and making false statements charges. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury returned an 18-count indictment Friday, adding LaToya Cantrell to the case.
The New Orleans mayor and Vappie have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as “personal and intimate.”
Cantrell & Vappie Exchanged Over 15K WhatsApp Messages
Prosecutors alleged that the secret couple exchanged over 15,000 encrypted messages through WhatsApp to avoid detection and then deleted the conversations. Messages included efforts to harass a citizen, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents, and “ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” prosecutor Simpson said.
The indictment says that in a WhatsApp exchange, Vappie reminisced about accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021. That was “where it all started.” They met in an apartment while Vappie claimed to be on duty, and she arranged for him to attend 14 trips, Simpson said. The trips, the prosecutor added, were described by her as times “when they were truly alone.”
Couple Spent $70,000 Of City Funds On Travel
New Orleans taxpayers paid more than $70,000 for Vappie’s travel, the prosecutor said. Authorities cited a September 2022 rendezvous on Martha’s Vineyard, a trip Cantrell took instead of attending a conference in Miami. The city covered Vappie’s travel to the island to attend a separate conference.
“The times when we are truly (traveling) is what spoils me the most,” the mayor wrote to him that month.
Prosecutor Simpson said LaToya Cantrell lied in an affidavit that she activated a function on her phone that automatically deleted messages in 2021 when she really didn’t activate that feature until December 2022. That was a month after the media began speculating on the pair’s conduct.
When a private citizen took photos of them dining together and drinking wine, Cantrell filed a police report and sought a restraining order. For context, Jeffrey Vappie also retired from the police department in 2024.
Supports Say New Orleans Mayor Was Targeted, Prosecutors Deny It
LaToya Cantrell and her remaining allies have said that she has been unfairly targeted as a Black woman and held to a different standard than male officials, her executive powers at City Hall sabotaged. Simpson, however, shook off claims that any of it played a role in the investigation.
“It’s irrelevant that it’s romance or that it’s female,” he told reporters, adding that the allegations were “an incredible betrayal of people’s confidence in their own government.”
LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat, has clashed with City Council members during a turbulent second term. Additionally, she survived a recall effort in 2022. Earlier this year, the New Orleans mayor said she has faced “very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable” treatment. Her husband, attorney Jason Cantrell, died in 2023.
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Associated Press writers Jim Mustian, Jack Brook, Heather Hollingsworth, and Ed White contributed to this story via AP Newsroom.
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