A complaint to the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission resulted in a New Orleans Police Officer being pulled from Mayor LaToya Cantrell's bodyguard detail for a second time, the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate reports.
Officer Jeffrey Vappie is on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, after a tipster sent photos to the MCC of Vappie and the mayor dining together on a balcony in the French Quarter.
MCC President Rafael Goyeneche said the picture raises multiple questions about Vappie and the performance of his duties.
"You do not sit with the principal at the table," said Goyeneche. "Not only is he not aware of who else is in the restaurant, but now he's exposed his protectee, which is the mayor, to potential threats from people that are external to the restaurant on the street."
And if Vappie were not on duty at the time, Goyeneche says that raises different complications.
"If an officer is socially involved with one of his subordinates or someone that he's involved in--in this particular case, in providing protection for--that's an employment conflict," he said.
Vappie was reassigned from the mayor's executive protection team once before, in 2022. That was while the NOPD Public Integrity Bureau investigated Vappie's time sheets for discrepancies during his time spent as the mayor's bodyguard.
That investigation resulted in two letters of reprimand for Vappie.
Vappie's wife accused him in a divorce filing of having an affair with the mayor. Both Vappie and Cantrell denied that allegation.