NEW ORLEANS — Months before New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was set to leave office because of term limits, she has been indicted in what prosecutors allege was a yearslong scheme to conceal a romantic relationship with her bodyguard.
Prosecutors say bodyguard Jeffrey Vappie was being paid as if he was working when he and Cantrell were really alone in apartments and visiting vineyards, hiding their communication by sending encrypted messages through WhatsApp and then deleting them. Although the pair have said their relationship was strictly professional, the indictment described it as “personal and intimate.”
The first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history has been charged with conspiracy, fraud and obstruction. 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.
The City of New Orleans said in a statement that it was aware of the indictment and that the mayor’s attorney was reviewing it.
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. She 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.
Here are things to know about the mayor and the indictment:
The indictment paints a detailed picture of Cantrell and her bodyguard traveling to vineyards and spending time alone in apartments at the same time it says Vappie was being paid as if he was working.
Vappie reminisced in a WhatsApp exchange cited in the indictment about joining Cantrell in 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.”
The following year, instead of Cantrell attending a conference in Miami, authorities said the pair rendezvoused on Martha’s Vineyard. Vappie’s travel to the island was covered by the city 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.
That same year, they also visited several California wineries, according to the indictment. After a “trusted staff member” posted a photo of the three of them on social media, one of Cantrell’s associates asked them to remove it.
They met in an apartment while Vappie claimed to be on duty, and Cantrell arranged for him to attend 14 trips, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said. The trips, he added, were described by her as times “when they were truly alone.”
In all, New Orleans taxpayers paid more than $70,000 for Vappie’s travel, Simpson said.
The pair used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, including efforts to delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents, “and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” he said.
Cantrell, a Democrat, won a historic election in 2017 by portraying herself as a candidate for the people and not of the city’s political class.
Her mayoral tenure started strong with her securing tens of millions of dollars for city infrastructure improvements and taking decisive steps during the pandemic. There wasn’t strong opposition to her 2021 election for a second term.
But it was around that time that the wheels started to come off her administration. After Hurricane Ida pounded south Louisiana in 2021, residents were left without trash collection for weeks, while crime rates were surging.
Meanwhile, Cantrell drew criticism for taking first-class trips abroad at the city’s expense, violating a policy that requires city employees to use cheaper fares. She eventually agreed to repay the difference. A WVUE television investigation also found she was using a city-owned apartment as a part-time residence.
Cantrell survived a recall campaign launched in 2022 by disgruntled Black Democrats and largely funded by wealthy white Republicans.
She is also among more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans two decades ago, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group that provided photographs and information to federal authorities in the latest case.
Although Cantrell is New Orleans’ first mayor to be charged while in office, this is far from the first corruption case to impact the city.
“Public corruption has crippled us for years and years,” Simpson said. “And this is extremely significant.”
In 2014, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to a decade in prison for bribery, money laundering, fraud and tax crimes. The charges relate to actions during his two terms as mayor from 2002 to 2010. He was released early in 2020 during the pandemic.
In 2022, Rodney J. “Jack” Strain, a former Louisiana sheriff, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a federal bribery conviction. He also received four life sentences for earlier convictions for raping boys. After serving five terms, he admitted he used his authority as sheriff to steer profits from a $1 million work-release contract to himself, his family and two deputies.
G. Thomas Porteous Jr., a federal judge from New Orleans, was impeached and removed from the bench after the U.S. Senate in 2010 determined he took money from attorneys and bail bondsmen and lied in a personal bankruptcy filing, among other offenses. He never faced criminal charges as a result of the probe, which ran from 1999 to 2007. He died in 2021.