Whipped Cream Difficulties

150 of these, and we have a good one for number 150.

LaToya Cantrell, the mayor of New Orleans, has been indicted on Federal charges.

The indictment accuses Cantrell of a slate of crimes including wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements, obstruction of justice and lying to a federal grand jury.

Also indicted: Jeffrey Vappie, who was a former New Orleans Police Department officer, the mayor’s bodyguard, and apparently her boyfriend. He had previously been indicted in 2024, but the grand jury issued a “superseding indictment” against him.

Here’s a list of the allegations against them:

Count 1: Conspiracy
Counts 2-13: Wire Fraud
Count 14: Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
Count 15: False Statements
Count 16: Obstruction of Justice
Count 17 and 18: False Declaration Before Grand Jury

More from WWL TV:

The indictment alleges that Latoya Cantrell, the Mayor of New Orleans, and Jeffrey Paul Vappie, a member of her Executive Protection Unit (EPU), developed a personal relationship in October 2021. To conceal their relationship and maximize their time together, they allegedly created a scheme to defraud the City of New Orleans by engaging in personal activities while Vappie was on duty and being paid for providing protection.
As part of the scheme, it is alleged that Cantrell had Vappie accompany her on at least 14 out-of-state trips, falsely claiming she needed protection for safety concerns. These trips reportedly cost the City of New Orleans over $70,000, not including Cantrell’s own travel expenses. The indictment also claims that Vappie and Cantrell used a city-owned apartment in the Pontalba Building for personal use, with Vappie frequently spending time there while on duty.
The document states that Cantrell and Vappie took several actions to impede inquiries and a federal grand jury investigation into their relationship and scheme. These actions included:

Using an encrypted messaging platform
Deleting electronic evidence
Making false statements to federal law enforcement agents and a federal grand jury
Lying to colleagues and making false public statements

More:

The indictment caps a federal investigation of Cantrell, first reported by WWL Louisiana in 2022. A grand jury started hearing the evidence from federal prosecutors in February 2024 and returned an indictment last September against building inspector Randy Farrell, charging him with conspiring to bribe Cantrell with about $9,000 in gifts in 2019, including NFC Championship Game tickets, a lunch at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse and a cell phone, in exchange for causing the firing of a city official who had been investigating Farrell for alleged fraud.

The WWL story also includes the full indictment.

As noted in the press coverage, Ms. Cantrell is actually the first sitting mayor of New Orleans to be indicted. Ray Nagin was indicted, convicted, and did time, but that was after he left office.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2025 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.