New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell just got slapped with a federal indictment that could shake the Big Easy to its core.
According to Fox News, on Friday, August 15, 2025, Cantrell and a former police officer found themselves in hot water with an 18-count federal indictment alleging conspiracy, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice over an alleged personal relationship and the misuse of over $70,000 in city funds.
This legal bombshell, unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, marks the first time a sitting mayor of New Orleans has faced criminal charges.
Prosecutors claim that around October 2021, Cantrell struck up an intimate connection with Jeffrey Vappie, a former officer in her Executive Protection Unit, and worked to hide it while reaping personal benefits.
The pair allegedly racked up over $70,000 in city-funded travel to places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even Scotland, with Vappie supposedly fudging timesheets to claim he was on duty.
While taxpayers footed the bill for at least 14 trips, Vappie was reportedly spending off-duty hours with Cantrell at the historic Pontalba Apartment in the French Quarter—a space meant for official functions, not personal rendezvous.
The indictment doesn’t stop at travel expenses; it accuses Cantrell of deleting messages and setting them to vanish within 24 hours to cover up the relationship.
Prosecutors also allege she lied under oath to a federal grand jury, withholding over 50 personal photos despite orders to turn over all evidence.
In a WhatsApp exchange dated June 11, 2022, Cantrell reportedly messaged Vappie about a ring, asking, “Hey did you tell [redacted] you put a ring on it?” Well, if true, that’s one expensive piece of jewelry—paid for by the good folks of New Orleans, no less.
Adding fuel to the fire, Vappie’s wife filed for divorce around the same time, citing this alleged relationship in court documents as reported locally.
Meanwhile, Cantrell’s own words in another message to Vappie, “The times when we are truly alone (traveling) is what spoils me the most,” paint a picture of personal indulgence at public expense—a tough pill for taxpayers to swallow. Let’s be fair: everyone deserves privacy, but when city dollars are allegedly funneled into personal escapades, it’s hard not to see this as a betrayal of trust.
Cantrell, elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2021 as the city’s first female mayor, has had a tenure riddled with controversy, from a failed 2022 recall effort to ethics complaints and questionable decisions like terminating a sanitation contract for a connected firm.
If convicted, she faces up to 20 years per count on several charges, hefty fines, and supervised release, while Vappie could see up to five years for false statements—serious consequences that could reshape the city’s political future ahead of the October 2025 mayoral race.
City Councilman Joe Giarrusso noted, “Everyone is presumed innocent under the law.” That’s true, and we must let the courts do their work, but when public trust is on the line, patience wears thin for many who just want accountability over progressive excuses.
