A New Orleans woman who was accused in June of stalking Mayor LaToya Cantrell has filed a federal lawsuit against the mayor and other city officials, accusing them of multiple violations of the law, defamation, abuse of process and malicious prosecution.
Anne W. Breaud filed the lawsuit July 26 in the Eastern District of Louisiana, arguing that her civil rights were violated and that she suffered severe damage to her reputation. The allegations come in the wake of Breaud taking a pair of photos of Cantrell having dinner and drinking alcoholic beverages with her bodyguard, New Orleans Police Department Officer Jeffrey Vappie II, according to the complaint.
Breaud later sent the photos, which she took from her apartment balcony, to a community watchdog group, the Metropolitan Crime Commission. The commission, in turn, has questioned whether Vappie violated Police Department policy by dining with the mayor while he was on duty, The Associated Press reported.
Vappie has since been criminally charged with wire fraud for allegedly submitting false payroll forms.
In addition to Cantrell, the defendants in the lawsuit include the Police Department; the mayor’s chief of staff, Clifton Davis II; and police Officer Leslie Guzman.
“LaToya W. Cantrell and some of the defendants – law enforcement officers and city of New Orleans employees – violated federal and state law to obtain the plaintiff’s private personal information, including … her date of birth, her full Social Security number and a dated photograph (late 1980s/early 1990s) which appears to be obtained from the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles,” the lawsuit states.
Cantrell later filed a Petition for Protection from Stalking against Breaud in New Orleans civil court that was full of false and unsubstantiated accusations as well as “outrageous fabrications and outright lies,” according to the complaint.
In June, Cantrell’s petition was dismissed by the district court, which awarded Breaud attorney fees and costs she incurred while defending herself against accusations in the petition.
Breaud’s attorney, Justin Schmidt, said the mayor’s filing of the petition was an act of intimidation that sent the message, “If you come after me, I’m going to come after you.”
In the wake of the petition’s dismissal, the Mayor’s Office released a statement that said “the overall objective was achieved, bringing needed attention to the threats and aggressive behaviors toward the mayor.”
Schmidt called the statement delusionary.
“Now that the mayor's paramour, Jeffrey Vappie, has been indicted, we now know from count seven of his indictment that one of the instances of payroll fraud stems from that April 7, 2024, incident on the Tableau Restaurant balcony that Ms. Breaud captured on her cell phone,” he told the Louisiana Record in an email.
Schmidt said Cantrell has a long record of disregarding local and state laws, as well as challenges from the City Council.
“She has further abused her office to the detriment of the citizens of New Orleans, globetrotting around the world pretending to be some expert on climate change and flood control, while, as president of the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, she cannot even keep the city's streets from flooding out cars after a moderate rainfall and a summer afternoon,” he said.
Breaud’s lawsuit seeks $500,000 for actual damages, including mental anguish and emotional distress, and $500,000 in punitive damages for defendants’ “willful and reckless disregard of the law.” The defendants deprived Breaud of her civil rights under federal law and violated the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Election Communications Privacy Act, the complaint alleges.
The Mayor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.