NEW ORLEANS — As expected, former NOPD officer and Cantrell bodyguard pleads not guilty to federal charges of carrying on a romantic relationship with the mayor on city time, then lying to the FBI about it.
Jeffrey Vappie, who retired from the New Orleans Police Department in June, was indicted on July 22 on charges of wire fraud and making false statements. His lawyers have declared his innocence.
The charges include seven counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements.
The indictment does not name Cantrell or charge her with any crime, but it refers to her on 12 of the 16 pages as Public Official 1 and alleges she was in a romantic relationship with Vappie for years and participated in his alleged scheme to cover it up.
According to the indictment, “…beginning not later than about November 2021, VAPPIE and Public Official 1 carried on a personal, romantic relationship, which VAPPIE attempted to disguise by making his interactions with Public Official 1 appear to relate to VAPPIE's duties and responsibilities as a member of EPU assigned to provide personal protection to Public Official 1. It was further part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that VAPPIE submitted and certified timecards to NOPD for periods he falsely.”
Sources told WWL Louisiana Vappie has been the subject of a federal investigation into his payroll records over the last two years.
His timesheets showed him getting paid for lengthy shifts, including hours when he was serving as a commissioner on the Housing Authority of New Orleans and when he was alone with Cantrell at a city-owned apartment at the Upper Pontalba Building on Jackson Square. The indictment alleges Vappie arranged to have Cantrell appoint him to the HANO board and submitted false timecards to NOPD and received "unearned and excessive payments as a result of those submissions."
The indictment alleges that Vappie committed wire fraud by causing direct deposits on seven of his paychecks between August 2022 and April 2024. It alleges he claimed to be providing security for Cantrell while texts, photographs and other messages indicted the couple was actually involved in "personal recreational activities."
► 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.