The mayor of New Orleans has been indicted on charges stemming from an alleged scheme to use over $70,000 of city funds to keep up a clandestine relationship with a bodyguard, new court filings show.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, first elected in 2017, used her office to "maximize" time with Jeffrey Paul Vappie II, a bodyguard the two-term mayor became romantically involved with in October 2021, according to an indictment filed on Friday, Aug. 15. Cantrell spent tens of thousands of dollars on trips with Vappie under the guise of official business, the indictment says.
The two went on 14 trips together that were considered New Orleans business, the indictment says. Destinations included the United Arab Emirates, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Among photos in court filings is one of them at a California vineyard. A trip to Scotland was "where it all started," Vappie wrote in one of 15,000 WhatsApp messages they exchanged between February and October 2022, according to court filings.
Federal charges against Cantrell in the Eastern District of Louisiana include conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements and obstruction of justice, court filings show.
A Cantrell office representative directed USA TODAY to send requests for comment via email. Her office did not reply.
