NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday, making her the first New Orleans mayor charged with a federal crime while still in office.

This is a superseding indictment from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, against Jeffrey Paul Vappie, II, and Latoya Cantrell. It charges them with multiple violations, including:

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 prot

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