NEW ORLEANS — If a picture is worth a thousand words, a newly surfaced photograph of New Orleans Police Officer Jeffrey Vappie NOPD at a French Quarter restaurant with Mayor LaToya Cantrell could lead to far more than that.
The last time there was a complaint about Vappie’s hours and duties guarding the mayor, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan issued a 76-page ruling blasting how the department handled the case.
Now Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, has filed a fresh new PIB complaint about Vappie based on a series of photos sent by a tipster. The photo clearly shows Cantrell and Vappie seated at a balcony table at Tableau restaurant overlooking the Pontalba and Jackson Square.
In his letter, Goyeneche asks the Public Integrity Bureau to investigate several potential violations of NOPD policy, including possible conflicts of interest by the mayor socializing with an employee, as well as a failure to uphold basic executive protection procedures.
In the photos, Vappie is not guarding a door or balcony entrance, or looking for potential threats. Instead, he’s seated at the table across from Cantrell, smiling and looking out over the balcony railing while Cantrell’s eyes are glued on him.
“If he's seated at the table, he doesn't know what's approaching the mayor from behind him,” Goyeneche said.
In his complaint letter, Goyeneche asks PIB to determine if Vappie was on duty on April 7 when the picture was taken, did he have permission from a supervisor to dine with the mayor, did he consume alcohol and who paid for the meal?
Goyeneche said there are potential violations regardless of Vappie’s duty status that day.
“Either way you slice it, whether he's on duty or off-duty, the way I see it, I think that's a violation of departmental rules and policies,” Goyeneche said.
If Vappie is on duty, Goyeneche said, he's not following standard protection procedures and could be getting preferential treatment. If he's off-duty, he said, there's a potential problem with this department policy on “nepotism and employment conflicts.”
Independent Police Monitor Stella Cziment agrees that the photo should be taken seriously.
“Questions will be asked about whether he was following the standard operating procedures,” Cziment said.
Cziment said the previous Vappie controversy led to an NOPD promise to do better, both on protection detail policy and, more importantly, PIB procedures for investigating highly sensitive allegations. Morgan, who is presiding over the 12-year-old consent decree, and the federal monitors blasted the NOPD’s handling of both.
“Supervision and adherence to policy should have increased in light of everything that was brought to the court's attention,” Cziment said.
Given the judge's criticism last time when the investigation was handled in-house, Cziment believes the NOPD should allow an outside agency to look at this one.
“In order to ensure public trust and a compliance to the misconduct process it should be considered for outsourcing,” she said.
WWL Louisiana reached out to the NOPD and mayor’s office for comment, but they did not respond.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.