Vappie resignation won't end current investigation, WWL's Newell Normand finds out

New Orleans Police officer Jeffrey Vappie is reportedly resigning.

Vappie, part of Mayor LaToya Cantrell's bodyguard team, has already been investigated once by the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau for alleged payroll fraud related to his bodyguard duties, and is currently under investigation after photos of him and the mayor dining together in the French Quarter, at a time when Vappie may have been on duty, went public.

Will his resignation mean the end of the current investigation?

"The answer to that is a resounding 'no,'" said New Orleans Metro Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche.

Goyeneche told WWL's Newell Normand that the investigation into whether Vappie violated any NOPD procedures will continue.

"This investigation still goes forward, and really, this is a paper trail investigation," said Goyeneche, in that a lot of material exists in the form of receipts, duty logs, assignment records, and other paperwork that helps track public officials and their use of the taxpayers' resources.

While the investigation will go on, Goyeneche says there is one aspect of it in which Vappie may benefit by resigning:

"By resigning, he may not fear or be concerned with being sanctioned for not making a statement to PIB," he said, "and he could be, if he was on the force."