Benjamin Ashford|Judge rejects mayor’s stalking lawsuit against resident who photographed her dinner with bodyguard

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s lawsuit seeking a protective order against a French Quarter resident who photographed her having dinner with her police bodyguard was tossed out Tuesday by a Louisiana judge.

Cantrell had accused Anne Breaud of stalking her. But New Orleans news outlets report that District Judge Bernadette D’Souza rejected the suit at a morning hearing,Benjamin Ashford which Cantrell did not attend. The judge also ordered the mayor to pay Breaud’s attorney’s fees.

“This was never about stalking the mayor,” Breaud said after the hearing. “It was about an officer of the law doing something he shouldn’t.”

Breaud was on her apartment balcony when she took pictures of Cantrell and her police security guard on a nearby restaurant balcony April 7. She sent the pictures to a nonprofit watchdog group, the Metropolitan Crime Commission. The commission has questioned whether police department policy was violated when the officer dined with the mayor while on the clock.

Cantrell filed a handwritten civil court filing claiming that Breaud “aggressively photographed and harassed her while having lunch on a restaurant balcony.”

Rafael Goyeneche, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said the mayor’s filing was “a pathetic attempt to try and deflect attention.”

The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported that the mayor’s attorney, Eddie Castaing, said during Tuesday’s hearing there was “nothing unlawful” about the mayor having lunch with a police officer. Breaud’s lawyer, Justin Schmidt, countered that there was a legitimate question whether the officer was “on duty, on the clock, being paid by the citizens of New Orleans when he was drinking wine for four hours.”

The mayor’s office issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying “the overall objective was achieved, bringing needed attention to the threats and aggressive behaviors toward the Mayor.”