New Orleans‘ Democrat mayor has been indicted in what prosecutors claim was a years-long scheme using taxpayer dollars to hide a romantic relationship with her bodyguard.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell was charged with federal counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction on Friday, less than five months before she leaves office due to term limits.
Prosecutors say her police officer bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, was being paid as if he was working when they met alone in apartments and spent $70,000 in city dollars to go on romantic trips.
They are also accused of exchanging encrypted messages through WhatsApp to avoid detection and then deleting the conversations.
The mayor, 53, and Vappie, 52, have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as ‘personal and intimate.’
Cantrell and Vappie are accused of developing an intimate relationship as early as October 2021. Notably, Cantrell was married at the time, before her husband, attorney Jason Cantrell, died of a heart attack in 2023.
In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie reminisced about accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021, saying that was ‘where it all started.’
Cantrell had told local reporters she needed a security detail ‘due to COVID,’ saying her travel accommodations were ‘a matter of safety, not of luxury.’
New Orleans’ Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell was charged with federal counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction on Friday
Typical. No need to say anything else
It figures.