A lawsuit is attempting to reveal body camera footage of Orange Beach police encountering Mayor Tony Kennon at the scene of a domestic violence report.
A federal judge will hear an emergency motion by plaintiff C.C. Dixon-Moreno, requesting review of the video based on Kennon’s reelection as mayor last week.
“The election is complete, and defendants have every incentive to close, or re-label, any internal review to justify continued withholding,” Dixon-Moreno argued in her emergency motion. “Once an administrative closure occurs and the records are withheld, delayed judicial review cannot restore the lost opportunity for timely transparency or public accountability.”
Dixon-Moreno is an attorney licensed to practice in Mississippi who filed the lawsuit in Baldwin County Circuit Court pro se after the City of Orange Beach did not provide her with the body cam footage upon request. The city had the case removed to federal court, where it argued that Dixon-Moreno did not use a records request process outlined by the city and allowed under Alabama law.
The hearing on the original motion is set to be heard tomorrow. Dixon-Moreno is no longer representing herself, having retained the services of attorney Dennis Green.
Dixon-Moreno has gone so far as to file claims for sanctions against the city’s attorneys in the case, claiming that they have made misrepresentations and ignored binding precedents. The city argues that Dixon-Moreno making a motion for sanctions is itself improper and meant to fuel her “social media reality show.”
“Moreno filed the Motion for Sanctions not because defendants filed a frivolous motion to dismiss, but because she continually seeks attention and followers on social media,” lawyers for the city wrote.
While a judge hasn’t weighed in yet on the claims in the lawsuit, Dixon-Moreno did obtain audio of the body cam footage that confirmed previous reporting that a bartender initiated an early-morning phone call to police, reporting a naked man punching a woman repeatedly on the balcony of the Coastal Resources building, a public building in Orange Beach.
When police responded to the scene, they were met by Kennon, who claimed he and his wife use the office as a “getaway” and that no domestic violence incident had occurred. Kennon tells police his wife is there and that they can speak with her, but the officers leave the scene without making contact with the reported victim.
A police report shows officers followed up days later with Paula Kennon, the presumed victim, and apologized to her for failing to properly make contact with her that night. She told officers that nothing occurred, and has since come out publicly to reinforce that statement.
Bartender Tierra Morrill told the Lagniappe Daily that she could identify the naked man as Tony Kennon, but could not identify the woman.
