New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has been indicted by a federal grand jury, marking the first time in city history that a sitting mayor faces criminal charges. Former Mayor Roy Nagin is the only other mayor to be indicted. He had been out of office for three years when he was indicted in 2013.
Court documents show Cantrell and former NOPD officer Jeffrey Vappie are charged with 18 felony counts, including conspiracy and wire fraud.
Prosecutors allege the mayor and Vappie used their positions to cover up an affair, which started in the fall of 2021, during the time he was assigned to the Executive Protection Unit (EPU), the mayor’s security detail. They’re accused of punishing staff, lying to colleagues and harassing someone who photographed them together in public. Prosecutors also claim they deleted evidence, made false statements to federal investigators and gave false testimony to a grand jury.
According to court documents, Vappie and the mayor spent hours together in a city-owned apartment. He allegedly filed false timesheets to show he was on duty while they were together. To conceal their affair, Cantrell and Vappie allegedly used WhatsApp to send encrypted messages. Prosecutors said they exchanged more than 15,000 personal messages, photos and voicemails. Between October 2022 and January 2023, prosecutors say Cantrell manually deleted thousands of messages she had exchanged with Vappie. She also enabled the app’s “disappearing messages” feature, which automatically deletes messages after 24 hours. In July 2023, Vappie viewed a help page about the feature, according to court documents.
The mayor allegedly arranged for Vappie to travel with her on trips out-of-state, falsely claiming it was for safety reasons. Vappie joined the mayor on at least 14 trips across the U.S. and overseas, including to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Scotland and the United Arab Emirates, which ended up costing the city $70,000 on top of Cantrell’s own travel expenses, prosecutors said. Messages from WhatsApp suggest their affair began in Scotland. Prosecutors said the mayor skipped a conference in Miami to visit Vappie in Martha’s Vineyard while he attended another conference on the city's dime.
In November 2022, Vappie was removed from Cantrell’s security detail and reassigned to another role within the department. He was placed on sick leave due to an injury, and rejoined the EPU in June 2023.
Vappie was removed from the mayor’s security detail after local media outlets published photos of the two dining and drinking together while Vappie was reportedly on duty. The following month, Cantrell filed a police report and a petition for protection, claiming that the resident who took the photos was harassing her and threatening her safety.
Vappie resigned from the NOPD in June 2024. During an interview with the FBI, he allegedly denied any romantic involvement with Cantrell and made several other false statements, prosecutors said. He was indicted last year on federal charges, including fraud and falsifying records.
In July, Cantrell was subpoenaed for records related to her travel with Vappie, but didn't turn over any messages, files or personal communications between the two, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the mayor intentionally withheld files from her phone and Apple iCloud account, including more than 50 photos, screenshots of messages and items Vappie had given her. She signed an affidavit, stating nothing was withheld, and that her phone auto-deletes messages after 30 days.
Cantrell and Vappie are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and false declaration before a grand jury.
Also facing federal charges is former city inspector Randy Farrell, who allegedly bribed Cantrell with dinner and Saints tickets in exchange for the removal of certain city employees. However, his name was not mentioned in the indictment.
Cantrell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in public statements. In June, she called the allegations levied against her “disrespectful.”
WWNO/WRKF have reached out to Cantrell’s lawyer and the mayor’s office for comment.
This story is developing and will be updated.
