Years before she was indicted by a federal grand jury, LaToya Cantrell brushed off warnings from associates who feared the New Orleans mayor’s budding romance with her police bodyguard might one day expose her to criminal charges, prosecutors say.
The predictions proved prescient on Friday, when the grand jury accused Cantrell and former New Orleans police officer Jeffrey Vappie of spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on their romantic travels, then scheming to erase evidence of the alleged affair.
The warnings, which Cantrell received in the spring of 2022 as signs of the liaisons became increasingly evident to people around her, came from at least three Cantrell associates, plus one of Vappie’s law enforcement colleagues, prosecutors say. In April of that year, an associate told Cantrell that “using public resources for your personal relationship” could be a crime.
“Prove to me that I am having a relationship,” the mayor responded, according to messages secured by federal prosecutors and detailed in the indictment.
Attorneys for Cantrell and Vappie have declined to comment on the charges. Both have previously denied having an affair.
The identities of those who delivered the warnings remain unclear, though they apparently came from a select few people close enough to offer Cantrell critical advice. Multiple former Cantrell administration officials said they recalled hearing rumors of the relationship at City Hall, but took care not to mention them to the mayor because they regarded it as a personal issue.
The mayor’s unwillingness to follow warnings highlights a core feature of Cantrell’s political persona. In interviews, six Cantrell advisors past and present, including current and former officials, said the often intransigent politician has a tendency to reject guidance she does not want to hear — a trait that winnowed down Cantrell’s inner circle during her second term, leaving her increasingly isolated as she piloted Louisiana’s largest city.
Messages detailed in the 44-page federal indictment also suggest Cantrell’s defiance accelerated her downfall from once-popular grassroots politician to New Orleans’ first sitting mayor to face criminal charges.
Silas Lee, a Xavier University professor and veteran pollster who once advised Cantrell but has since fallen out of contact with her, likened the mayor’s dismissal of the warnings to her refusal several years ago to reimburse taxpayers for first-class flights. (She ultimately did so under mounting pressure from opponents and some administration officials.)
“She has constantly tried to deflect and say things are not what they are,” he said.
Warning after warning
Federal prosecutors say associates of Cantrell, as well as an NOPD official, delivered four warnings to the mayor over several weeks beginning in March of 2022.
That month, a member of the Executive Protection Unit, the mayoral security team to which Vappie was assigned, sent a message to the unit saying that “anyone having an affair with Cantrell should stop” because the relationship could have “detrimental consequences” for the mayor and the police department.
Cantrell and Vappie both “confronted” the officer about the text message, prosecutors say. At the same time, Vappie denied that he and Cantrell were engaging in an intimate relationship.
A few days later, an “associate” warned Cantrell that her behavior mirrored the fate of a former Nashville, Tennessee mayor who faced criminal charges in 2018 over a romantic affair with a police bodyguard.
A one-time rising star in the Democratic Party, Megan Barry, resigned after pleading guilty to state charges that she cheated the city out of thousands of dollars to carry on the affair with Nashville police Sgt. Robert Forrest. Forrest pleaded guilty to felony theft.
“It is a felony to have your lover be paid to work and have his travel paid for by the city,” the associate wrote to Cantrell on April 4, 2022, according to the indictment. “That Nashville mayor had to pay back like $50,000 and serve three years’ probation. She is done! Please don’t let this be your path, LaToya!”
“Please don’t accuse me,” Cantrell responded, according to the indictment.
On April 5, another associate advised the mayor that “spending public funds and misusing public resources for your personal relationship” is illegal. Cantrell shot back with a demand that the person “prove to me” she was having a relationship with Vappie.
Four days later Vappie, Cantrell and a “trusted staff member” of the mayor took a trip to Napa Valley, California, ostensibly on official business, according to the indictment. Shortly after the trip, an “associate” contacted the staffer to say they were concerned about a photo the employee posted on social media showing Vappie and Cantrell standing together in front of a rolling field of grapevines.
Cantrell told the associate to “not contact my staff.”
Walter Becker, a veteran defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said the admonitions bolster prosecutors’ claim that Cantrell was aware her behavior tested the limits of the law, but continued anyway.
“Somebody was putting her on notice that what she was doing was wrong,” Becker said.
Broader pattern
Cantrell’s decision to ignore the warnings reflects a broader theme in her second mayoral term, political observers say.
The Los Angeles native rose to power in New Orleans surrounded by a team of seasoned political consultants, community organizers and dedicated outsiders who saw promise in her anti-establishment approach in the years after Hurricane Katrina.
But she became increasingly isolated following the start of her second term in 2022.
By the end of 2024, almost none of Cantrell’s former advisors were still with her after a period of staff turnover, retirements and the deaths of two political consultants she once confided in, Bob Tucker and Bill Rouselle.
Cantrell gradually stopped confiding in other former colleagues as public criticism grew louder over a variety of issues, including her first-class travel and relationship with Vappie.
“We often had to really push back and explain the political ramifications of things,” said Karen Carvin Shachat, a political consultant who worked on Cantrell’s first mayoral campaign, reflecting on that race. “It was a struggle. She doesn’t take well to advice that suggests she do something she doesn’t want to.”
Political veterans say the charges are unlikely to prompt the mayor to resign. From battling tourism interests in her first term to insisting that taxpayers pay for her seat upgrades on overseas flights, Cantrell has rarely acquiesced. She returned to work at City Hall this week and declined to take questions in person on Tuesday.
Lee, the pollster and former Cantrell advisor, said this case marks the sixth time a political client of his has been indicted by federal prosecutors.
“Among all of those people,” Lee said, “there was always a belief that others did not understand what they were doing, that they could justify their behaviors, that they could explain what happened.”
