A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment Friday of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell , capping a years-long corruption investigation that had overshadowed the mayor's second term.

The grand jury handed up charges against the sitting mayor at the Hale Boggs federal building in downtown New Orleans shortly before 1 p.m. Addressing Magistrate Judge Eva J. Dossier, a member of the grand jury identified Cantrell as a defendant against freshly filed charges but did not list the counts she faces or describe the allegations they stemmed from. A copy of the indictment was not immediately available.

Jeffrey Vappie, the mayor's former New Orleans Police Department bodyguard who a federal grand jury accused last summer of wire fraud and false statement counts, was indicted on fresh char

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