An Orange Beach attorney is suing the City of Orange Beach and Mayor Tony Kennon for failing to provide body cam footage of a domestic violence incident reportedly involving Kennon.
Christle “C.C.” Dixon-Moreno has been a constant source of criticism for Kennon on social media over the past few weeks. Kennon has been under fire since the Lagniappe released a bombshell article detailing a police report detailing a witness account of a naked man punching a woman on the balcony of the Coastal Resources building, a city-owned building where Kennon maintains a second office.
That Lagniappe story cited sources who have seen body cam footage of the incident, with a man’s voice from behind the door affirming, “This is Tony Kennon.”
Kennon has called the allegations untrue, prompting Dixon-Moreno to request that the city provide her with the body cam footage through a public records request.
Dixon-Moreno requested the footage and relevant accompanying records on July 15 outside of the city’s public record request structure. City attorney Jamie Logan responded, instructing Dixon-Moreno to file the request through the city’s official portal.
“Alabama Code (Section) 36-12-40 does not require a scavenger hunt,” Dixon-Moreno said in a Facebook post sharing the response. “Forcing a duplicate form is arbitrary and capricious. That’s legal speak for making it up as they go. Yet, the 5 day clock keeps running for the body cam footage of Tony Kennon at City of Orange Beach Coastal Resources on Labor Day 2024. Transparency does not need a second application. Honesty does not require multiple requests.”
With no further response from the city, Dixon-Moreno followed through and has drafted a complaint that is expected to be fully processed and served by the end of the day today.
An Alabama law passed in 2024 created a new code section related to Alabama’s open records laws, Section 36-12-44, that states “a public officer may require the requester to submit his or her request using a standard request form or by following the written procedures for accepting requests for public records established by the public officer.”
The code also creates a timeline for responding to a “standard request,” providing 10 days to acknowledge the receipt of a request and up to 15 days after acknowledgement to provide a “substantive response” to the request.
The law, sponsored by State Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, has been championed by the Alabama Press Association and Alabama Broadcasters Association as an improvement to Alabama’s open records law, providing clarity to timelines for receiving public documents.
A bill was also passed in 2023 establishing a process for law enforcement agencies to release body cam footage, but only to individuals who are the subject of the recording or a personal representative of those individuals.
Dixon-Moreno’s lawsuit will test those laws and Alabama’s open records law more generally as she and others seek to obtain the body cam footage and other details ahead of the August 26 municipal elections.
