From the New York Post,
Feds accuse New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell of defrauding taxpayers to hide ‘intimate relationship’ with her bodyguard.
It’s a garden variety fraud: herronor spent many thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on her bodyguard/boyfriend without any nexus to her official duties. Trips, meals, lodging, etc.
It’s an 18-count indictment with a total dollar amount of $70,000.
As it comes to corruption in Louisiana, one has higher expectations for creativity. But this passage in the Post report came as a surprise:
Cantrell, New Orleans’ first female mayor, is term-limited and will leave office in January. She is the first city leader to be charged with a federal crime while still in office.
Really? The first? She is, of course, a Democrat, as have been all of her predecessors in the office since 1874.
Local station WDSU-6 (NBC) provides some historical context,
Former Mayor Ray Nagin became the first mayor in New Orleans history to be convicted on bribery charges.
Nagin, a Democrat, served as mayor from 2002 to 2010.
What did Nagin do?
He was convicted on 20 counts of corruption in February 2014 after he was found guilty of accepting more than $160,000 in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of businessman Frank Fradella. Nagin was also charged with accepting at least $60,000 in payoffs from contractor Rodney Williams for his help in securing city contracts.
It’s important to note that Nagin was convicted three years after he had finished his term as mayor.
Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, Nagin didn’t spend the full 10 years behind bars. But, apparently, he still owes money for restitution in that case.
