After a protracted corruption investigation, a federal grand jury in New Orleans indicted Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday.
A federal magistrate court read Cantrell’s name aloud as a defendant, and her attorney, Eddie Castaing, verified to The Associated Press that an indictment had been returned. Although the FBI and U.S. attorney planned a news conference for the afternoon, the charges were not immediately public.
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An email and phone call from The Associated Press asking for comment were not immediately answered by the mayor’s office.
A protracted federal inquiry into the city’s first female mayor in its 300-year history has resulted in the indictment.
Term-limited, Cantrell will step down in January. During a contentious second term, the Democrat has clashed with members of the City Council and has managed to withstand a recall attempt in 2022.
According to Monet Brignac, a spokesman for City Council President JP Morrell, “Today is a sad day for the people of New Orleans.” As the Cantrell family works through this trying time, our prayers and thoughts are with them.
Cantrell hasn’t posted anything on her official X (previously Twitter) page since July 15, when she claimed that crime in the city was at an all-time low.
Her civic prominence has diminished as Cantrell enters her last months in office, alienating allies and erstwhile confidants. Political watchers claim that her self-inflicted injuries and acrimonious disputes with an antagonistic city council overshadowed her early accomplishments. After the city’s charter was amended by voters to limit the mayor’s power, her position has become less important.
Cantrell and her surviving supporters claim that because she is a Black woman, she has been unfairly singled out and held to a different standard than male officials, and that her executive powers have been undermined. Cantrells stated earlier this year that she had received extremely rude, demeaning, and in certain situations, unthinkable treatment.
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Reporting from Mission, Kansas, was Hollingsworth.
