NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has been hit with a federal Civil rights lawsuit by the woman she tried to accuse of stalking her.
Pontalba resident Anne Breaud filed the lawsuit Friday against Cantrell, her chief of staff Clifton Davis and three police officers involved in taking the mayor's police report, in which she claims Breaud stalked and harassed her. The officers are Leslie Guzman, Victor Gant and Ryan St. Martin.
In her suit, Breaud accuses Cantrell and the other defendants of violating her civil rights by defaming her and including false information in a protective order the mayor filed against her.
The protective order was quickly dismissed, but not before personal confidential information about Breaud was made public, including her social security number, an old driver's license picture and an arrest of Breaud that had been expunged.
Breaud said the old arrest stems from a domestic dispute in which she was the victim and Cantrell's inclusion of the information was "severely injurious to Breaud's reputation."
Breaud admits she took the now infamous photos of Cantrell and her former police bodyguard Jeffrey Vappie on the balcony of the Tableau restaurant but states that the mayor defamed her by accusing her of taking other pictures and video she had nothing to do with.
The City of New Orleans issued the following statement:
The City of New Orleans will withhold any comment at this time due to the ongoing nature of this litigation. Our position will be communicated in our answer to the petition.
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