Crime Wire Weekly 8/22/25 | New Orleans Mayor Indicted, Roblox Lawsuit, OnlyFans Prank Gone Wrong (Preview)

0:00 All right, folks, we have a pat day for you today in the world of crime. I'm gonna cover a couple of the headlines that you're gonna hear today, not gonna cover them all like they usually do, because you know, I just run out of time to write them. Kelly Jennings, that's fine, but we're gonna give you a little bit of what we're going to talk about. New Orleans Mayor Latoy Cantrell has been accused of a criminal cover up to keep an affair she was having with her bodyguard, a seeker. We're going to talk about that, and we're going to stay in Louisiana for another story. Roadblocks is getting sued Louisiana being the first date to sue Roadblocks. We're going to talk about that. A woman has been shot dead after her husband wanted to add new rules to their open marriage. Well, I mean, I always thought you didn't have rules in an open marriage, but apparently they had some sort of rules. We'll get into what that exactly means. Authorities have found a body they believe it to be a twenty three year old man who disappeared while hailing a ride in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

1:10 We're going to talk about that, and we're also going to talk about a former Cincinnati children's doctor that had one hundred and fifty thousand child pornography images as well as hundreds of videos that he was caught with. Kelly's going to bring you that story, and we got so much more today. It was such a packed week in the world of crime that actually I struggled to pick, you know, not to go crazy and have a twenty four hour show. Right, we could keep going and going, Oh, it really could. So we're going to talk about all of that today. Welcome to Crime Wire Weekly. I'm Jim Chapman and I'm Kelly Jennys long week this week, Kelly, with all the crime stories that have been coming up, and I know Kelly and I well, you tell him about our little field trip if you will. Today.

2:02 Before we recorded this, we've had a long day and we had the privilege and the honor of speaking with he's now Mayor McDavid. David McDavid out of Zachary and so we are working very hard on a Derek Todd Lee series we were going to be releasing sooner than later. I know, I've been my listeners have heard me say that, but we are working hard. And we even went on one site to some of the places where these victims were and maybe still are today. Yeah, it was very somber, and so we're going to be bringing all that your way. I can tell you Kelly has already recorded episode one of that series. Of course, we're talking about Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings, So go check that out if you're not already checking it out, because she's got a big project coming up with DTL. Excited for that. Now, let's get into the stories, and we're going to start out in New Orleans, the Big Easy and I'm going to tell you about Mayor LaToya Cantrell. She is all over the news, not only locally but nationally. So what happened well? Officials allege that she has defrauded the city while trying to keep her hidden relationship with a police officer that was assigned to protect her. So New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted this past Friday on federal charges of defrauding the city while trying to keep a romantic relationship with that officer's

3:34 secret Cantrell is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, false declarations, and other charges before a grand jury. Prosecutors allege that her romantic relationship was with her bodyguard, a guy by the name of Jeffrey Paul Vappi the second and he served on the New Orleans Police Department's Executive Protection Unit from May of twenty twenty one to April of twenty twenty four. Now to hide their relations from detections and maximize their time together. Now because you may wonder, well, I mean, maybe she just fell in love with her body her version in Kevin Costin. Yeah, maybe, Yeah, it sounds so romantic. Well, the problem here is Cantrell and Vappy would exploit their public positions to develop and implement a scheme to defraud the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department by engaging in personal activities while Vappy claimed to be on duty and he was paid to be on duty during those times. Vappy was already facing charges of wire fraud and making false statements, and he has pleaded not guilty to those charges. A grand jury returned an eighteen count indictment on Friday that added Cantrell to the list in this case and new allegations against Vappy. If convicted,

5:08 Cantrell and Vappi could face years in prison. Some of the counts outlied in the indictment carry up to five years in prison each and others up to twenty years in prison. So this is serious shit here. Yeah, this is not you know, something where they're not going to do prison time if they're convicted. The pairs three year fraud exploited their public authority in position that according to Michael SIPPs Simpson, who is the acting US Attorney with the Eastern District of Louisiana, Cantrell was married during the period that all of this went down, to an attorney by the name of Jason Cantrell. He died in August of twenty twenty three. The mayor and Vappi have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as personal and intimate. Federal prosecutors allege the two used what'sapp. Now, WhatsApp is supposed to be what Kelly, it's supposed to be an application that does what?

6:10 Well, it's not. I don't know what you're looking for her, but that is not traceable or. That's right, that's right. It encrypts your text. So let this be a lesson for you that if the police want to unencrypt something there, I don't think there's an app out there, at least the federal government that they can't unencrypt because. And I'll tell you this too, think of the forward thinking. If you're trying to go through an app that you think is encrypted, that's right, D D D that's right. Yeah. And so fifteen thousand messages back and forth they were able to unencrypt, as well as pictures and audio clips during an eight month period. It wasn't immediately clear when the messages were sent. Prosecutors say Cantroll and VAPI also used the app to intimidate subordinates as a citizen.

7:01 More on that in a second delete evidence light of colleagues, and commit perjury for the purpose of distracting and impeding investigations into their actions. That be accompanyed Cantrell on fourteen domestic and international trips to maximize their times together. For example, during a working trip to working trip to San Francisco in April of twenty twenty two, the pair stated extra day they visited Napa Valley's wineries. That nice. Yeah, and that he claimed to have worked fifteen hours that day. Well he did, Oh he worked, Oh he worked. He heard it. In one text, Cantrell characterized their moments together as quote, I love the times when we are truly alone.

7:47 And I don't know she said it with that deep of voice, and as and that it quote spoils her the most. So prosecutors are using that to prove this was more than a Kevin Costner situation. Yeah, I don't ever recall sending any of that to any of my. Bosses, right, And so the problem again New Orleans. They added up how much money New Orleans, the city paid for these trips, et cetera, seventy thousand dollars in tax money, essentially to finance this love fest. On the backs of the citizens. And that's the thing. This money comes on the backs of working citizens. That's right. So she's in a bond. And I am going to cover this entire lawsuit on exposed. I've already got it printed out. Not lawsuit, actually I misspoke there.

8:40 I'm going to the indictment. This is a criminal indictment. It's not civil. You know, this is a criminal indictment. I'm going to cover that, so stay tuned, but just quickly on this whole scenario. I have a personal experience with this scenario, and the way that I got this was about a year, maybe a little over a year ago, a lady contacted me. She said, I want to do a podcast, and she was from New Orleans, and so we kind of talked about what she was wanting to do, and she mentioned, if you're curious about who I am, you can google me. I'm very she didn't use the term famous, but very well known in New Orleans because I have a lawsuit and I have a lawsuit against me as well as I have one against Littoya Cantrell.

9:25 So I googled that and then I talked to her about it. Well, this lady had taken a picture of Vappy and Cantrol together when it was worktime and they were basically having drinks and they were sitting at a table and where her apartment was, she could see them on from her balcony and she took a picture because they were holding hands and she's like, hmm, Mayor getting a little bit cozy with her bodyguard. Well, Cantrell ended up suing her for like stalking and some other things. It became a big mess. But that's no doubt what kicked off this investigation. Absolutely, And then on top. Of that the citizen, the intimidated citizen, that's this lady.

10:08 I'm not going to say her name because I don't know if she will want. Me to, but yeah, well, and the thing is too, because I know you and I looked into this previously, is that then Mayor Cantrell used her position to access un public or non public information on said citizen to then try to go after this person and then falsified or basically kind of lied on, allegedly lied on some documents, and was able to get a protective order against this citizen that is believed to otherwise otherwise would have not been given. That's right, that's right. So this is deep shit and this is the FEDS. So I think ninety five percent plus conviction.

10:51 I think she's cooked. As the kids would. Say, yeah, and look, I don't know her personally, but I know I was not happy with the way that she was maintaining her mayorship of New Orleans. There are a lot of things I personally disagree with. I don't live there, so I don't have skin in the game, but I do travel there and visit there, and so I've never been a fan of hers, let's say that. But so when this came out, he didn't surprise. I wasn't surprised either. I think a lot of people here if you asked them, they'd say they weren't surprised. They're my how the mighty have fallen? And we'll see how how that one goes. But now we're going to take take our adventures to the Rocky Mountain National Park, where officials have found a body believed to be a man that went missing after taking a ride share to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado last week. A Rocky Mountain National Park spokesperson said on Thursday, August fourteenth that authorities found remains likely belonging to Blake Kikafer, twenty three years old, from Omaha, Nebraska. A day earlier. The body was recovered above Emerald Lake. Rocky Mountain National Park rangers completed an unseen investigation, and the recovery was done by helicopter.

12:02 His body was flown to a landing zone in Rocky Mountain National Park and handed over to the Larimer County Corner's Office. Search efforts started after Kikifer's family reported him missing to park rangers on Monday, August eleventh. Kikafer was last seen in the Upper Beaver Meadows area of the park on August seventh, around five to twenty pm, when he was dropped off by the ride share service. The NPS spokesperson said investigators focused the search on the Emerald Lake area on Wednesday. Over eighty people took part in the search yesterday, according to the spokesperson, The Larimer County Corner's Office will confirm the identity of the body. According to the Rocky Mountain National Park statement, other than that, though they don't really give us a cause or a cause of death or anything. So I guess that investigation is still going.

12:46 Still pending. It sounds like, and you know, the Rocky Mountains, You just don't think of things like this happening. I think of John Denver, Rocky Mountain. Hi. I'm not going to try to sing it. Sing No, I'm not going to try to sing it. But certainly a horrible situation. No, but Nina Wonder is the ride share person responsible to something happened before they drove off like it kind of leaves you wondering. I would think it would be pretty cut and dry if they were. And I'm the same way. I was wondering that as well. But I would think that that would be pretty easy to figure out to where it would already be out. Who knows, it could just be a coincidence. I mean, if the ride shair picks him up, brings him more, he wants to go let him out, and he's done with him and next thing you know, this guy's never seen again. But you just wouldn't think about that. You know, that's a big travel destination and be like that happened at Disney World to me, you know, just horrible stuff. We'll keep you updated on it, and we'll go back to Louisiana from Colorado. And this is a lawsuit, but it's a civil suit against roadblocks and a lot of you parents out there, your kids, I'm sure are like my kids when they were kids and probably at least played that game, very popular online gaming platform, and if you're a parent with young kids now, this will be a good one listen up to. So Louisiana's Attorney General, Liz Murrel, has fired a lawsuit in Livingston

14:21 Parish at the twenty first Judicial District Court, that is right where we're recording out of Livingston Parish. The lawsuit of Ledgen is that Roadblocks and dangers Louisiana children. And basically to kind of I guess cut this down a little bit, what they're alleging, and that is a state Attorney General's office, is that Roadblocks does not have proper safety features in place to keep these child predators from getting on these gaming systems and chatting with children. Now, let me tell you a little bit of out Roadblocks. You may not know. Roadblocks has eighty two million daily users.

15:08 It is a public company worth over forty billion dollars. That's with a B. They are no joke. Louisiana is the first state to file a lawsuit against them. And let me tell you the reason for this. Their chat features and a lot of apps, Roadblocks being no different. And these sexual predators are going on Roadblocks and they are basically chasing down these kids chatting with them. But they're pretending to be a kid. Their aidge right, and they're implementing things like voice changing devices so they sound like young kids too when they chat on the voice portion of the chat or the video.

15:48 Chat absolutely, and Roadblocks has no safety features really to speak of to combat that. As a matter of fact, they don't even ask your age when you logged in to the app. Fifty six percent of the of the people playing Roadblocks are kids under the age of seventeen. Fifty six percent. Have you ever played it? Have you ever even looked at it? I've seen my kids playing it. Okay, I'm not trying to hurt anybody feelings because I know adults play it. But I went and sat down with my kids one time to, you know, play it. It was the boringest thing I've ever done in my life. I don't get it. You're not a kid, I know. And so for my point being, for an adult to play this game on and I know adults do, I'm not trying to say they don't, but but it's definitely geared towards a child.

16:37 It is geared, that's right, and it was marketed that way, which is why they should have a lot of safety features. But it's not just the chap features that are disturbing. So in Roadblocks, you have to create an experience, that's the whole thing. So you I almost invent a game inside of the game, like a world, like a world. And let me give you a couple of examples of those worlds. How about Escape from Epstein Island that is actually on that platform. How about Escape from Ditty that is on that platform. There's probably one hundred Ditty showing Ditty Combs games. There's several Epstein games. How about going to a strip club? You can do that on Roadblocks.

17:18 They have made these experiences where you experience what it's like to be in a strip club. And this is an app that is marketed towards kids from Roadblocks. That's not alleged, that's a fact. And there is no security safety features. They don't even ask your age. So I can go on there as a fifty year old man and I can say I'm a fourteen year old boy in chat with a fourteen year old girl and she didn't know any. Different, right, And then what they're going to do is implement things like tricking the kid into giving their address. And I know you're like, well, how would you trick a kid? Very easy? Oh man, I have an extra one of these brand new headsets with the cool mic look We're such good friends look on mail it to you.

18:02 What's your address? Kid gets all excited, drops that address, kid goes missing. And guess what. In some cases you don't even have to do that. They have location features on roadblocks everything. They can see exactly where you live if you turn those on. That's how scary. It's very scary. That application is so the reason that they chose to sue them civilly in court, from what I understand, and I was at I was at the actual press conference, the reason that they're choosing to do this is because you got to hit these big public, billion dollar companies where it hurts. Where does it hurt their profit? You got to go after their profit. That's the only way they're going to ever change what they're doing. But they need some serious safety protocols. They lack safety protocols, and with the way the world is today, this makes it so easy for these sexual predators to prey on kids.

18:59 And I'm glad well I had to see State of Louisiana and Attorney General Les Mural step up. Absolutely because dollars should not be more important than kids' lives. And that's not being extreme. You can research this on your own if you want to, but kids have been kidnapped as a result of using these types of games. Kids go missing all the time at the look at the thousands and thousands of kids that are missing in our country today, and then we hand them a device basically, and even if you look my own kids, you tell them, toll you're blue in the face, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and they're still going to do it. And finally I had to sit in one of my little ones down and say, listen, it's what you don't know that's going to hurt you, right, and you don't know a lot. You're not old enough for me to explain the horrors of all of this, you know. Yeah, And the best bet right now would be to take those devices from the kids. The best thing you could do is to remove them. But we're in such an electronically inclined world now, that seems kind of hard.

19:53 Yeah, And that's that's really the issue. You almost can't function without some sort of seller device. For example, you can certainly make it where these these apps aren't downloaded things of that nature. Some phones do have those capabilities. Uh, But I am glad all my kids are grown. That's all I can say, I'm glad they're all. I'm in the thick of it right now too, And I'm just gonna be completely honest. Okay, I've never been a tech guru. Everyone who knows me knows that. But i do care a great deal about my kids, and I've purchased monitoring subscriptions and things that are just supposed to be so simple so you don't have to keep up with all the technological changes and all these apps and blah blah blah blah blah. And maybe some people have had great experiences. The one that I had, it was so hard to work it because you didn't know what the hell it was talking about to upload it and have this and that. And I even spoke to some other friends of mine that that tried the same thing that we all ended up canceling it because it was so difficult to even get the device set up to be able to monitor. And then they can only monitor certain types of devices, which they don't tell you when you sign up, right, So we as a people are gonna have to make some changes, and I don't know what that looks like.

21:03 But this is a good start. Yeah, yeah, all right, Well let's go on to Cincinnati, where a former Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center doctor is facing multiple federal charges related to child pornography. Howard M. Saul, a former geneticist and dis morphologist at Cincinnati Children's, was in federal court Tuesday for charges of transporting and possessing child porn. According to court documents, a Hamilton County Sheriff's Office detective received a cyber tip in February regarding searches for child pornography that originated from Saul's IP address. That cybertip included an image of two young girls engaging in sexual conduct. The Sheriff's office then executed a search worn in June which they seized approximately twenty nine items, including electronic devices and storage devices. Jeris said to date, as part of their ongoing review of the seventy three year old's electronic devices, the FBI has s found more than one hundred and fIF fifty three thousand images and four hundred and seventy videos of child's sexual abuse material. He said.

22:07 Some of the material found involves victims as young as newborns. During the search, investigators also it's it's un I can't I can't even yeah, I can't even envision. I don't want to, but I can't even make that work in my brain. During the search, investigators also questioned Saul about whether he owned any sect child sexual abuse material, and according to the court documents, he responded, I hope not. Saul advised that he has viewed child pornography but removed it from his devices. That was also according to the court documents, and he also advised that child pornography bothers him, and that is why he looks at it. It bothers him, So that's why he looks at it, right, right, We believe you, Saul not. Through their investigation, officials have not found any evidence of child pornography involving patients or children associated with Cincinnati's Children's Real Quick I would wonder how they could prove that if there was no face involved, you know, I feel like that's kind of kind of a leap there. But Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said she encourages anyone who thinks they may be a victim of SALT to contact detectives. We will continue to seek out dangerous individuals and bring justice to victims' families. Transporting child pornography is pun punishable by at least five years and up to twenty years in prison. Possessing child pornography carries a potential maximum penalty of twenty years in prison.

23:31 In a statement, Cincinnati children said, the safety and care of children is at its core what we do and who we are. We absolutely condemned the exploitation of children. The statement continues, We are cooperating fully with the authorities, and Howard Saul is no longer employed with Cincinnati Children's and that. And it's not their fault. This is one sick individual that you probably most people would have never thought would have done. I mean, this guy was obviously smart, you know, it's just every yeah, I mean, he was probably a brainiac and you know, a very sick, twisted, disgusting individual who I hope gets everything he deserves. But again, this is another story that ties back to these predators, and in this case, a lot of these sick I'll refrain from following up on that, but a lot of these sick individuals that do this, they look at it as they're not hurting anybody, because they're just pictures. They're not you know, I'm not out there raping a child. I'm just looking at a child.

24:35 But how did you become how twisted, and how did you come into be possessing these that's where you dark web come on, man, I know, and someone had to originate these photos, So don't tell me. Where there's a demand, there's going to be a supply, and so that type of logic doesn't work. It's sick, right. And then to think as a parent, think about how you would feel if you brought your child to this person to you know, be looked at, which I looked up dis morphology, because obviously that would be I didn't know what that was, right, I did, honestly, I didn't know what that was, and I looked it up and it says that these are generally pediatricians and they look at birth defects and congenital defects of children. And so you're thinking, these kids are already having you know, a birth defector, an issue that's already So that's a personal thing, you know, when you're trying to help your kid navigate this. And then to know that he might be looking at your child as a sex.

25:27 Object or taking pictures well, or taking under. The guise of medicine. That's sick, and he does what every predator does, puts themselves in a position of power. That's not uncommon. And so my heart goes out to these parents, and my heart goes out to the children in these photos and videos because they're somewhere and they're somebody's kids, right, newborns? Come on, Yeah, God, let's go to Georgia and a fifty five year old Georgia woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the slaying of her husband after she shot him following a disagreement about her seeing other men in their open marriage. Okay, so let's get into this. When Cheryl Coe was convicted Monday a murder and aggravated assault in the death of forty eight year old Luther co the Third, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and the Sheriff's office responded at seven point thirty pm on Jane twenty third of twenty twenty one. So that case, it's been taking a while to go through the court system, which is frustrating. But on twenty twenty one, the Sheriff's office responded to the co home and the defendant had called nine one one to report that she had shot her husband when she mistook him for an intruder. Okay, so police allegedly told the cops that prior to the shooting, she consumed four or five angry Orchid hard sider drinks. Yeah,

27:04 and she turned into an angry orchid. I guess she drank those on the porch as her husband worked in his detached. That's angry orchard. When I say orchid, that's a flower. I drink angry orchard. My bad. My husband is not in danger when I drink them. But well that I don't drink that. I drank beer. Well, it's like a. Woman's beer. Apple drink anyway, It don't matter. That's hard sider stuff anyway. So she drank that. So she was probably pretty drunk. And her husband, she said, was working in her detached garage, and she reportedly said she decided to go to bed around seven to fifteen pm, but she awoke roughly about ten minutes later when the bedroom door swings open. She thought it was an intruder and she just opens fire, saying she was trying to protect herself. That's what she told police. Herb was well.

28:00 She claimed she didn't realize she shot her husband until she until he said, Cheryl, you shot me. That was his quote. She said, her story well, the police said her story fell apart immediately as investigators determined that her husband had suffered what's done as a contact bullet wound. Yeah, so she was right up on him with a powder. Burns were basically on his chest. You know. They could tell that the gun was fired right next to his body, So she wasn't sleeping in her bed in a you know, a good distance away. They could prove that. So Coke then claimed she shot her husband all of a sudden, the story changed self defense. She said that he came storming in the room. He tried dragging her r out of bed. She said, he left the room, so she took the opportunity to grab the gun while he left from the night stand, and she fired a warning shot, which she said made the victim angry. So she said she pulled trigger the second time and that's what killed him.

29:02 She said, I was trying to hit the wall behind the TV so it would scare him off or make him leave. I wasn't trying to hit him, but she did. After co helped paramedics render aid to her husband, he later died at the hospital, and investigators discovered simmering issues within the marriage, so a series of text messages in the days leading up to the sheeting reportedly showed the couple fighting about their open marriage. Cheryl Coo asked her husband for permission to see another man later that week. That's different. He then reportedly asked if she was also planning on seeing a second man that same day, to which she responded left out loud. The victim reportedly said her response turned his stomach. HM imagine that she suggested they end their open marriage because hey, it's causing issues.

29:58 We're fighting over her this open marriage thing, but he reportedly wanted to keep it going, but with more ground rules. Lethera Coe reportedly became even more upset when he learned his wife was talking about their issues with a friend. The defendant reiterated her self defense claim when she took the stand at the trial, and she told the jurors he was more enraged than he's ever been at me when this all went down. As why she initially told cops the shooting was an accident, she claimed it was because she didn't want to tarnish her husband's reputation. Prosecutors during closing arguments, pointed out all these conflicting narratives. Look, if there's one thing you've learned from listening to either of our podcast it's the truth never changes. So when you have conflicting narratives, there's a lie in there somewhere has to be so.

30:50 And then she's trying to act like she's his savior. Yeah, like bit you'll shoot him. Yeah, I mean, obviously you know she's lying. And according to his obit, Luther co served in the US Army. He owned a demolition and road grinding company. Seemed like a straight up guy. And look, I don't judge, Okay, open marriage whatever, but you can't kill somebody. Right well, either it's open or it's closed. And the text messages that I'm just I know I didn't hear the whole trial, but just based on what was sent right there, he doesn't sound. Like he's, uh, he's too cool on it. Yeah, but he doesn't also sound like he's enrage like he just kind of like is disgusted by how that and let's put more rules into place means he kind of I mean, I wouldn't want to open marriage, but it seems like he respects the marriage enough to say, let's put more rules in place, so that.

31:40 Were you can't just be sleeping around with everybody, right, at least tell me about it first. Maybe that's what he was saying. And you know she's right in lol back to. Him, I mean to shoot somebody. Sorry, I know, that's just yeah, girl, you deserve to be where you're at. That's nuts life. Life. She got a life, she did well enjoy it because all of that over because you wanted to go sleep with a bunch of men and your husband. Imagine that, and your husband took issue with it. Yeah, well, I mean, and he was apparently letting her do it to an extent. He just want us rules right? Two in one day grind rules? No? All right? How about punches thrown in a fight that knocked out at least one man completely unconscious along lake winter set over the weekend has now prompted Polk Sheriff's count I love this guy, Polk Sheriff's Grady Judd to announce zero tolerance for any more raucous behavior on shore and recently documented that was recently documented in a Facebook video, Hey everyone.

32:42 Crime Wire Weekly has moved to its own new channel. We hope you've enjoyed this preview. To continue listening, please follow the link referenced in the description of this. Podcast, or simply search Crime Wire Weekly wherever you're listening And don't forget to follow the show so you can bet alerted when new episodes draw Thanks for listening.