had to clear cookies from the browser to get things working again
was logged into the web interface
ran command v-delete-user username
attempted to reload the web interface. got a 500 code
even rebooted the hestia server
the hestia error log showed errors trying to run v-list-user username
finally I realized the browser was caching the old data and cleared the cookies
even if this cant or wont be fixed it may help someone else