XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.liberalism, sac.politics   
   XPost: neworleans.general   
   From: democrat.negroes@do.it   
      
   An outside firm is investigating complaints lodged against a total of four   
   New Orleans Police Department officers who are accused of improperly   
   accessing and disclosing private information about Anne Breaud, a French   
   Quarter resident who Mayor LaToya Cantrell alleged was stalking her in a   
   court petition that a judge recently tossed.   
      
   Transcendent Law Group will investigate two complaints with the NOPD's   
   Public Integrity Bureau against former and current officers Leslie Guzman,   
   Jeffrey Vappie, Sgt. Victor Gant and Officer Ryan St. Martin, for alleged   
   violations of NOPD policy on performance of duty, according to an email from   
   the law firm obtained by The Times-Picayune and other news outlets.   
      
   All four allegedly failed "to comply with instructions, oral or written,   
   from any authoritative source." They are also accused of violating the   
   department's records release policy.   
      
   A resident of the Upper Pontalba building on Jackson Square, Breaud last   
   month won a court fight against Cantrell, who sought a protective order   
   after Breaud took photographs from her balcony on April 7 of the mayor   
   dining and apparently drinking wine with Vappie, then a member of her   
   security detail, on a neighboring balcony.   
      
   Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Bernadette D'Souza dismissed Cantrell's   
   petition for protection from stalking after about five minutes of   
   deliberation and ordered the mayor to pay Breaud's legal fees and court   
   costs. By then, Breaud's attorney had already accused Cantrell of digging up   
   private information on her that ordinary citizens can't access.   
      
   "I'm trying to figure how the mayor got my client's social security number,   
   date of birth, an old driver's license picture and expunged criminal records   
   that weren't germane to this or anything else," said the attorney, Justin   
   Schmidt, on June 10. "Nobody else filing a petition like this is entitled to   
   that and can get it that quickly. That just doesn't happen."   
      
   NOPD records show that Guzman took a complaint from Cantrell on May 9 at   
   City Hall. The mayor told the officer that "she is being harassed/followed   
   by a female...who has been photographing her and distributing said images to   
   the media outlets," the narrative reads.   
      
   "(Redacted) had a criminal history for aggravated battery."   
      
   Gant signed off on Guzman's report.   
      
   Breaud's expunged criminal history turned out to be a 2016 battery charge   
   out of Assumption Parish that was dismissed after she was found to be a   
   victim in a domestic incident. Breaud said it marked a painful revisiting.   
      
   "The assault in which I was a victim, not the perpetrator...none of my New   
   Orleans friends knew any of these stories," she said on June 27. "It wasn’t   
   my story anymore. I had to do a lot of explaining."   
      
   Schmidt filed a complaint naming Guzman, Gant and Vappie. An unknown   
   individual filed a separate, second complaint pertaining to the same   
   incident that names St. Martin.   
      
   NOPD said they do not comment on open PIB investigations. A call and email   
   to Transcendent Law Group were not returned by late Monday.   
      
   https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/outside-firm-launches-2-   
   investigations-of-officers-accused-of-improperly-sharing-anne-breauds-   
   private-information/article_7fa7c45c-42ed-11ef-b485-d724154bf8fe.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)