Last Friday (August 15), a federal jury indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on 18 charges stemming from her attempts to cover up an affair she had with a bodyguard from the city’s police force dating back to 2021. Cantrell is the first mayor of New Orleans to be indicted while still in office, as the city is weeks away from mayoral elections taking place on October 11. She has not publicly commented on the indictment.
Included in the 18 charges levied against Cantrell by the Federal Bureau of Investigation are allegations of false declarations before a grand jury, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and wire fraud. Eleven of those charges are also attached to former New Orleans Police Department officer Jeffery Vappie, with seven focusing solely on Vappie alone.
Vappie was also indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday, and Cantrell is accused of withholding evidence from her grand jury testimony in Vappie’s case last year.
The 45-page-filing includes reports on the FBI finding 15,000 WhatsApp messages between Cantrell and Vappie related to their extramarital affair along with reports on $70,000 in city funded-work trips the two used as couples vacations domestically and internationally. There are also allegations concerning Cantrell and Vappie’s use of a city-owned apartment in Upper Pontalba, as well as reports of Cantrell and Vappie using intimidation against subordinates.
According to acting U.S. Michael Simpson, they expect Cantrell to enter a plea of not guilty, but he was mum as to whether the federal government was looking to get a stronger sentence. Cantrell could potentially face a prison sentence of five to 20 years on the 11 charges if convicted. “We go after law breakers, and especially in this city, public corruption has crippled us for years and years,” Simpson said in reporting by Axios.
Cantrell is term-limited, and will exit the office in January 2026. She became the first woman to be elected to the office of mayor in New Orleans in 300 years in 2018, running as a Democrat. Cantrell has often come under fire while in office, which she has chalked up to being a Black woman under more intense scrutiny. “I do know that this seems to be kind of prevalent relative to black leadership ..and I think that I’m not exempt from that,” the mayor said in 2023, according to reporting by local network WWLTV.
