NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans was charged on Friday with going to criminal lengths to carry out and cover up a romantic relationship with a city police officer who had been assigned to protect her, prosecutors said.

The indictment emerged from a lengthy federal investigation into corruption that has cast a shadow over Cantrell’s second and final term as mayor, which ends in January. She and her former bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, face a combined 18 felony counts, including making false statements, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

The indictment “reflects the prosecution of two public officials alleged to have engaged in a yearslong continuing fraud scheme that used public money for personal ends,” Michael Simpson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District

See Full Page