NEW ORLEANS — Anne Breaud says she was a neighbor of Mayor LaToya Cantrell for a couple of years. Breaud, a French Quarter socialite who works in real estate, has a corner apartment in the historic Upper Pontalba with an impressive wrap-around balcony overlooking Jackson Square.
Cantrell, meanwhile, was exposed for using the city-operated “hospitality” apartment in the building as her residence, a perk that was taken away by the City Council after the body determined that the mayor abused the privilege.
The two were familiar with one another by living in such close quarters, but according to Breaud in a free-wheeling interview with WWL Louisiana, they barely interacted, never spoke, but otherwise peacefully co-existed.
That all changed when Cantrell filed a petition for a protective order against Breaud, accusing her of harassing and stalking her, shooting hundreds of hours of video and placing her at risk.
The mayor included the allegation that Breaud “aggressively photographed and harassed me while having lunch on a restaurant balcony.”
According to Breaud, all of the mayor’s allegations are either flat-out false or greatly exaggerated except for taking photos of Cantrell on the balcony of Tableau restaurant, now widely-published images of Cantrell sitting across from her then-police bodyguard Jeffrey Vappie.
“I've never followed her,” Breaud said. “I've never stalked her. I've never taken her picture on the ground or even on her balcony.”
As for Cantrell’s other allegations, Civil Court Judge Bernadette D’Souza swiftly dismissed the claims of harassment and threw out the mayor’s petition.
But while Cantrell and her attorney stated that they were happy to put the matter behind them, Breaud said she remains embarrassed and hurt over personal information the mayor included in the petition.
That confidential information included Breaud’s social security number, an old driver's license photo and a 2016 arrest in a domestic violence case that was thrown out.
In her petition, Cantrell wrote, “The defendant has a history of assault and I am not safe.”
Breaud said the mayor’s mention of the old arrest has been especially painful, forcing her to re-live and explain a dark period in which she says she was abused.
“I was an assault victim,” she said. “So it's re-victimizing me on abuse that I suffered, that I had expunged off my record. Then it became a story that I had to explain to the people that I know.”
Breaud said she took the photos of the mayor and Vappie on April 7th on while she was standing on her own balcony right across the street. She said she provided the pictures to the Metropolitan Crime Commission over concerns about Vappie, not the mayor.
“I couldn’t care less about what the mayor was doing,” Breaud said. “It’s that an officer of the law was sitting there drinking.”
Documents obtained exclusively by WWL Louisiana show that it wasn't until a month later that Cantrell filed a police report claiming she felt “unsafe and frightened by (Breaud's) menacing behavior.”
That same police report, and the request for a protective order filed the next day, show that the mayor was provided Breaud's old arrest information by NOPD officer Leslie Guzman.
“I can't imagine why she was given access to that and why she would use it against me,” Breaud said.
The NOPD has not responded to questions about how and why that confidential information was given to the mayor and included in a police report.
Breaud said she was on vacation in Mexico when she heard about the protective order. She hired an attorney when she saw false claims about her being the source of video of the mayor and feeding information to the media, information that ultimately led the City Council to kick the mayor out.
“I've never spoken to anyone or given any interviews or forwarded any pictures or videos to anyone other than the Metropolitan Crime Commission,” she said.
Despite winning in civil court, Breaud said she is still rattled by the mayor's actions.
“Am I going to have to leave the French Quarter and make someplace else my home?” she asked. “I don’t want to live anywhere else. I chose this to be where I want to spend the rest of my life, specifically the French Quarter, not just New Orleans. So I had all the emotions of what am I going to do with my life, the mayor is now after me. She's using the court system to go after me personally.”
Cantrell has not spoken about her request for the protective order and, despite being subpoenaed, was not forced to testify in court because the matter was dismissed.
But in a statement from her office, a spokesperson wrote, “The Mayor felt threatened by Ms. Breaud's actions as would any reasonable person under similar circumstances. This led her to question whether her behavior would escalate and also whether it was part of a past pattern by this individual. As attorney Eddie Castaing previously stated following the legal proceeding…The court made its ruling, the matte, the matter is over and the Office of Mayor will have no further comment regarding this issue.”
Meanwhile, Vappie has filed a notice of his retirement from the NOPD, despite being under internal investigation for his activities, hours and pay while he was part of the mayor’s security team.
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