Federal police monitors in New Orleans say the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau did not do a very thorough job investigating time sheet irregularities involving a member of Mayor LaToya Cantrell's Executive Protection Team, NOLA.com reports.
The PIB investigation found Officer Jeffrey Vappie violated policy by reporting an 18 hour work day, spending "numerous hours" alone with the mayor outside of his regular duties, and by attending a couple of Housing Authority of New Orleans board meetings as an appointee of the mayor's.
But federal monitors criticized Public Integrity for using the wrong legal standard in its investigation, seemingly ignoring "a wealth of circumstantial evidence" about Vappie's off-duty time with the mayor at the Pontalba apartment owned by the city, and failing to pursue interviews of many witnesses, including Cantrell herself and former NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson.