An audio file corroborating previous reports of a domestic violence call involving Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon surfaced Monday about a week before voters head to the polls.
Orange Beach resident C.C. Dixon-Moreno, who is involved in a federal lawsuit against the city for failing to release the body cam footage upon her request, released the audio file to news media and numerous authorities, including the Alabama attorney general’s office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Dixon-Moreno did not receive the file from the city, but obtained it from a separate party.
The audio file begins with an unidentified officer speaking to the woman who called in the incident, identified by Lagniappe Daily as Tierra Morrill, a Pleasure Island Tiki Bar bartender on the night of the incident.
“There was this guy who was buck naked on the patio right up there, grabbed some girl by her hair, hit her like two to three times screaming at her, ‘You’re never gonna run out on me, don’t you run out on me,’ and threw her back inside,” Morrill tells the officer on the recording.
As the officers head toward the building, they express confusion about whether someone lives at the Coastal Resources building where Morrill reported witnessing the incident.
After a couple of minutes, officers can be heard knocking on a door and a voice asks who is at the door, to which the officers identify themselves as the Orange Beach police department.
“To do what? Hey, it’s Tony Kennon,” the voice responds. “I’m the mayor, it’s my office.”
The officers proceed to inform Kennon that they had received a call about a potential domestic violence incident at the location, while Kennon apologizes. As previously reported, Kennon informs police that his wife is there and that they can speak to her if they’d like, but the officers do not attempt to make contact.
“This is our escape, we get away from everything here,” Kennon tells the officers.
In an interview with Gulf Coast Media shortly following the July 8 Lagniappe report, Kennon denied using the office as a getaway.
“My ‘getaway’ is the property I own next door,” Kennon said. “These untruths are embarrassing for me and my family, but mostly it’s embarrassing to our community and our community does not deserve this.”
But in the audio, Kennon says again that the office is their “getaway on the weekends.”
“We’ve got nowhere else to go,” Kennon said.
Kennon apologizes to the officers for “thinking somebody was shooting at you,” and the officers laugh and ultimately leave without making contact with the reported female victim. The audio ends shortly after, potentially signaling that the body camera was turned off. A police report shows that officers ultimately followed up with Kennon’s wife, Paula, four days later, apologizing for failing to make contact. Paula told officers that no incident had occurred and that she was fine.
Dixon-Moreno also released a transcript she had been provided that includes the leaked audio as well as unreleased audio from a third officer on the scene.
The transcript describes the officer speaking on the cell phone to someone about the incident.
“Guess who it is,” the officer says into the phone. “This f***ing shit, the naked man. Tony f***ing Kennon. It’s Tony and his wife … he don’t have the door open because he’s probably f***ing naked.”
The incident has raised questions not only about whether Kennon assaulted his wife or another woman on the balcony as reported, but also about his use of the office as a “weekend getaway” and the response of officers who are ultimately under his authority.
