NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted Friday in what prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to hide a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, who is accused of being paid as if he was working even when they met alone in apartments and traveled to vineyards for wine tasting.
Cantrell faces charges of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction, less than five months before she leaves office due to term limits. The first female mayor in New Orleans' 300-year history was elected twice but 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 charges of wire fraud and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury returned an 18-count indictment Friday that added Cantrell to the case.
They’re accused of exchanging encrypted messages through WhatsApp to avoid detection and then deleting the conversations. The mayor and Vappie have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as “personal and intimate.”
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a phone message or email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Cantrell hasn’t sent out a message on her official social media feed on X since July 15, when she said the city was experiencing historic declines in crime.
Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, including efforts to harass a citizen, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents, “and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” Simpson said.
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, he added, were described by her as times “when they were truly alone."
New Orleans taxpayers paid more than $70,000 for Vappie’s travel, the prosecutor said.
Simpson said Cantrell lied in an affidavit that she activated a function on her phone that automatically deleted messages in 2021 when she really didn’t active that feature until December 2022, 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, Simpson said.
Vappie retired from the police department in 2024.
Cantrell and her remaining allies have said that she’s 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.”
Cantrell, a Democrat, has clashed with City Council members during a turbulent second term and survived a recall effort in 2022.
“This is a sad day for the people of New Orleans,” said Monet Brignac, a spokesperson for City Council President JP Morrell. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Cantrell family as they navigate through this difficult time.”
As she heads into her final months in office, Cantrell has alienated former confidants and supporters, and her civic profile has receded. Her early achievements were eclipsed by self-inflicted wounds and bitter feuds with a hostile city council, political observers say. The mayor’s role has weakened following voter-approved changes to the city’s charter meant to curb her authority.
Earlier this year, Cantrell said she’s faced “very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable” treatment.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
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