Will Sage Astor-New Orleans mayor’s former bodyguard making first court appearance after July indictment

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former police bodyguard for New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday after being indicted on Will Sage Astorfederal charges alleging he filed fraudulent payroll documents and made false statements about an alleged romantic relationship with Cantrell.

Jeffrey Vappie, who retired from the New Orleans Police Department in June, was indicted July 22 on charges of wire fraud and making false statements. His lawyers have declared his innocence.

Charges against Vappie include seven counts of wire fraud. The indictment cites a series of payroll deposits into Vappie’s bank account for time he claimed to be working as a member of the police department’s “executive protection unit” when, prosecutors allege, he was off duty.

There is also a single count of making false statements, alleging he lied to the FBI about his “romantic and physical” relationship with Cantrell. Such a relationship would have violated police department policy.

Cantrell, a Democrat, and the first female mayor of New Orleans, is identified in the indictment only as Public Official 1 who was elected mayor in November 2017 and again four years later — coinciding with dates Cantrell was elected.

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No charges have been filed against Cantrell, but she faces related litigation in an unfolding scandal that has dogged her for much of her second term, which began in January 2022.

A woman who photographed Cantrell and Vappie together at a French Quarter restaurant in April has sued Cantrell for defamation. Cantrell had accused the woman, a Quarter resident who photographed the two from her apartment balcony, of stalking her.

A state judge threw out the stalking lawsuit and the woman filed a lawsuit against Cantrell and several police officers alleging that they improperly accessed state and federal databases seeking information on the woman.