By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Wednesday that Mayor LaToya Cantrell recently “paused” a round of high-ranking police promotions, a decision that has drawn the ire of police officers’ groups and suspicions of political retaliation.
At the top of the promotional rankings for police major were two officers who signed off on an internal investigation into Cantrell’s former bodyguard and alleged paramour, now-retired officer Jeffrey Vappie. The decision affects those promotions, as well as for the rank of captain.
“She obviously was given the list ... understanding it was not a final list,” Kirkpatrick said of the mayor in an interview with The Times-Picayune. “She had opinions about it and yes, she did” have a say in stopping the promotions.
Kirkpatrick said she’s working on revising the process, saying she’s been in talks with Cantrell, federal consent decree monitors and the U.S. Department of Justice. She said she hopes to salvage the existing promotional list for those ranks, with some adjustments.
Kirkpatrick declined to say more about the mayor’s influence on the decision to shelve the promotions for majors and captains after the test rankings came out. The Cantrell administration did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
But the mayor’s alleged influence has stirred alarm from officers’ groups. On Tuesday, the Police Association of New Orleans and the Black Organization of Police asked the Civil Service Commission to investigate what they described as a “blatant political infringement into the civil service process.”
PANO attorney Eric Hessler said there is good reason to suspect retaliation.
“There were persons that were high up on the list that were ripe for political discrimination,” he said.
Hessler said it was the first promotional round for major in 34 years. He called the mayor’s influence an affront to the civil service system.
“The entire thrust of the system is to protect people from this, and here we go,” he said.
The officers’ groups had long suspected the influence of mayors on NOPD promotions, Hessler added, “but this is the first time we’ve ever had a high-ranking officer confirm it. I applaud (Kirkpatrick) for doing that.”
The stalling of those promotions also has drawn the attention of the monitors who report to a federal judge on the NOPD’s progress with reforms under a 12-year-old consent decree. Recently, the Justice Department joined the city in urging U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan to let the NOPD begin to exit federal oversight.
Lead monitor Jonathan Aronie said Tuesday at a public meeting that he would soon issue a report on his review of the suspended promotions. Aronie said he didn’t see immediate signs that the ranking process was mishandled.
“If there is bias, we want to know. If the process wasn’t followed, we want to know,” Aronie said. “No one can stop (the process) just because they don’t like the results.”
‘Interjecting her will’
Lists provided to the newspaper show the top rankings for major went to Kendrick Allen and Precious Banks, two officers in the Public Integrity Bureau. They both were involved in an investigation that found misconduct by Vappie, who has since been accused by federal prosecutors of conspiring to hide a romantic relationship with Cantrell in order to keep collecting his taxpayer-funded salary.
Vappie is accused of seven counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements to the FBI in one of two federal indictments that identify Cantrell as “Public Official 1.” The second, filed against building inspection firm owner Randy Farrell, accuses Farrell of giving her gifts in a bribery scheme. Both Vappie and Farrell have pleaded not guilty.
Rafael Goyeneche III, President of the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, said the promotions issue also could compromise the NOPD’s potential exit from federal oversight. Goyeneche said he received multiple complaints regarding the captains and majors lists.
“The information we received was that the mayor interceded and thwarted the chief to not move forward with captains and majors, but was OK with allowing sergeant and lieutenant promotions,” Goyeneche said. “What that suggests is the mayor doesn’t like the people most likely to be promoted based on their scores.”
He cited the halt on promotions as “yet another example of the mayor interjecting her will into a process.”
The mayor has not been charged as part of a federal investigation swirling around her. But in their indictment of Vappie, federal prosecutors tied the alleged fraud to the mayor’s decision last year denying then-interim NOPD chief Michelle Woodfork the permanent job, after she had upheld misconduct allegations against Vappie.
Cantrell also stands accused of using New Orleans police officers to dig up dirt on French Quarter resident Anne Breaud , whose photographs of the mayor and Vappie dining on a balcony in April became fresh fodder for allegations of impropriety. Cantrell hit Breaud with a restraining order that Breaud successfully quashed before she sued the mayor in federal court.
“This has been the mayor’s M.O. all along,” said Justin Schmidt , Breaud’s attorney. “It’s like, you cross me and you’re done.”
Independent police monitor Stella Cziment said she wasn’t ready to come to a conclusion about the promotions process. Cziment said her office fielded allegations that the process was stalled due to cheating.
“I think there are a lot of narratives getting created and pushed, and I am reluctant to back any narrative without a thorough review of that,” Cziment said.
Promotions are an area that, like all NOPD policy, has been rewritten under the federal consent decree.
The mayor’s alleged involvement has prompted another revisiting of the department’s promotional policy, Kirkpatrick said.
Currently, the NOPD employs a hybrid model for promotions, consulting both outside and inside reviews of applicants.
“We want outside assessment as a total test process,” Kirkpatrick said. “If you don’t know me, you can’t claim I’m biased.”
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