Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon is facing intense scrutiny after the Lagniappe Daily released a bombshell report based on police records of a potential domestic violence incident at Kennon’s second office.
The police reports tell the story of a Pleasure Island Tiki Bar waitress who, on September 2, 2024, left the restaurant at about 1 a.m. and noticed a naked man on the balcony of the nearby Coastal Resources building. The naked man reportedly grabbed a woman on the balcony by the hair, punched her three times in the head and yelled, “You don’t ever walk out on me.”
Further police records show that officers responded to the call, and the report states that officers made contact with a male subject who “advised there was no emergency” and officers therefore did not enter the office. A follow-up report stated that an officer reviewed the body cam footage of the incident and determined that the victim was never contacted, spurring a welfare check on “Ms Kennon” with the officer apologizing for the lack of contact during the incident in the early morning hours of September 2. Ms. Kennon reportedly told officers that there was no incident and no need for further assistance.
The Lagniappe reported that sources familiar with the body cam footage say a man answered from behind a closed door: “This is Tony Kennon,” and that officers at that point seemed to stand down.
Kennon, in social media posts and videos, has decried the story as wholly untrue and said critics are attacking his personal life rather than his governance of the community. Kennon promises supporters that he will “protect the bubble” of Orange Beach.
This is just the latest scandal of Kennon’s 17-year tenure as mayor of Orange Beach, and it has old and new critics alike pleading with residents on social media not to support Kennon’s reelection bid on August 26.
Local attorney C.C. Dixon-Moreno has been maybe the most vocal of these critics, demanding release of the body cam footage from the city and temporarily being blocked by Kennon’s Facebook account before she threatened to sue.
While Kennon has refused to directly address whether he was in the office that night, he has traded barbs in social media comments with Dixon-Moreno and others, telling Dixon-Moreno that he will reveal her to be a “hack” hired by his opposition.
Kennon has faced numerous scandals both in and out of his office. Just last March, the city agreed to pay $300,000 to settle two lawsuits alleging discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ city employees.
In 2010, the city settled a lawsuit for $47,500 by former employee Jil Walker alleging that Kennon solicited sex from her in 2005, while she was serving on the Orange Beach Planning Commission and he was a member of the Orange Beach City Council.
