NEW ORLEANS — While Mayor LaToya Cantrell awaits the outcome of intertwined federal investigations in which a contractor was recently indicted for allegedly bribing her and her former police bodyguard was indicted for payroll fraud, a federal civil rights lawsuit against the mayor will be allowed to proceed.
U.S. District Judge Nanette Jolivette Brown denied a motion to stay the lawsuit filed against Cantrell, her chief of staff Clifton Davis and three New Orleans police officers.
The lawsuit filed by French Quarter resident Anne Breaud claims that Cantrell and the others violated her privacy by publishing confidential information about her in the now-dismissed protective order.
The mayor filed the failed protective order against Breaud after she snapped photos of the mayor with her then-police bodyguard Jeffrey Vappie as the pair sat on a balcony restaurant across from Breaud’s Pontalba apartment. Vappie resigned from the NOPD amid the federal probe.
In trying to derail a federal civil rights lawsuit against her, Mayor LaToya Cantrell openly admits that authorities are “conducting a pending, ongoing, wide-ranging active investigation” against her, according to the mayor’s motion requesting a stay.
The federal probe first generated an indictment against Vappie, who is accused of payroll fraud for collecting city pay while spending romantic time with Cantrell and lying about the matter to FBI agents.
More recently, on Sept. 27, contractor Randy Farrell was hit with a 25-count indictment in which he is charged with bribing the mayor to fire a Safety and Permits official who was investigating an allegedly fraudulent permit-and-inspection scheme by Farrell and his company IECI.
Both Vappie and Farrell have pleaded not guilty in court and have aggressively and publicly proclaimed their innocence. And while Cantrell has not been charged, she is listed in both indictments as “Public Official 1.”
Michelle Foster, vice president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a non-profit watchdog group, said the pending civil lawsuit and recent indictments put Cantrell in a difficult legal position.
“On the one hand, you have the mayor saying I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not going to be indicted,” Foster said. “On the other hand, she's using the federal investigation and the potential that there's an indictment to try to slow this down.”
Despite speculation that the federal probe could ultimately lead to charges against Cantrell, her legal team admits she has not been informed that she is a target, much less indicted.
In her ruling, Jolivette Brown wrote, “The fact none of the named Defendants in this case have been indicted weighs heavily in favor of denying the stay.”
In her lawsuit, Breaud claims the mayor violated her rights by publishing her confidential information in her protective order and claims the police officers helped obtain the private information.
The information included Breaud's social security number, an old driver's license photo and a 2016 assault arrest in which the charge was dropped and expunged because Breaud showed she was actually the victim of domestic violence.
Ironically, Jolivette Brown could reverse her ruling and impose a stay of the federal civil if the mayor eventually does get indicted.
“It's a very tough spot and it appears that the walls are closing in (on Cantrell) from opposite sides,” Foster said.
With a civil rights lawsuit getting the green light, Cantrell could be subject to discovery and depositions by Breaud’s attorney. Cantrell has not responded to the judge’s ruling, but earlier the city stated that it won’t comment on pending litigation outside of court filings.
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