Both pleaded guilty last November to a single charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.Prosecutors alleged they steered more than $1.3 million from the New Orleans Public Library Foundation to themselves, largely by funneling it through the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, which Mayfield founded.Mayfield, allowed to speak before he was sentenced, apologized to the library foundation, its donors and the New Orleans community.
Mayfield at his nightclub on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in 2009.
He became a symbol of New Orleans resilience after Hurricane Katrina, but was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for steering charity money meant for public libraries to his personal use.
But the library foundation scandal led to his resignation as artistic director of the orchestra in 2016 while scrutiny of his role with the library grew following investigative reports by WWL-TV.Mayfield was among musicians who took a high-profile role in promoting New Orleans after levee failures and catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mayfield’s father died in the floodwaters.Mayfield was also a founding member of the Afro-Caribbean jazz ensemble Los Hombres Calientes.Prosecutors said that in addition to orchestra operating expenses and salaries for Mayfield and Markham, library foundation money went into Mayfield’s personal bank accounts and toward the purchase of a gold-plated trumpet.