So Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell is beginning to surround herself with some quality people

quote:

---

What could be a critically important relationship between the city's newly elected mayor and state lawmakers is off to a rocky start after Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell showed up at a meeting this week with one of the legislators' former colleagues: ex-con Derrick Shepherd.

Shepherd, a former state senator who served more than a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to money laundering, accompanied Cantrell to a meeting with New Orleans legislators designed to begin building relationships during the five-month transition before she is sworn in.

But any good will the gathering was intended to generate may have been squandered by Cantrell's decision to include the former West Bank lawmaker.

---

quote:

---

That race would play a role in Shepherd’s own downfall, after Jefferson connected him with a bond broker who needed a partner in a money laundering scheme involving bogus bonds.

Shepherd moved about $141,000 through his law firm as part of the deal, keeping about $65,000 for himself and his campaign account, according to a federal indictment.

Shepherd was originally charged with multiple crimes. But in a plea deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to just one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and resigned from the Legislature in late 2008.

He was sentenced to more than three years in prison in February 2010, serving time both behind bars and in a halfway house before being released to federal probation in March 2012.

---

quote:

---

The former lawmaker also has faced multiple allegations of domestic violence, including accusations that he attacked a jilted lover in 2008 and left her bruised after breaking down her door in the middle of the night. She claimed it was the third time he had attacked her.

---

quote:

---

Asked earlier this week whether he was seeking or had taken a role in the Cantrell administration, Shepherd said, “I defer all questions to Madam Mayor-elect.”

---