Bayou La Batre Mayor Brett Dungan is appealing a harassment conviction stemming from a heated confrontation with a city councilwoman, with his attorney filing notice of appeal immediately after a Mobile County District Court judge issued the guilty verdict. The quick move sets the stage for a full retrial in a higher court and extends a legal fight that has already deepened divisions in the small fishing community’s city government.
“We filed a notice of appeal before we left the courtroom,” said Dungan’s attorney, Michael Hickman, who said he expects the case to move to Mobile County Circuit Court for a new trial before a jury — a step known as a trial de novo. “We’ll do it all over again — we’ll have an arraignment, a status hearing,” Hickman said. “He realizes that this is just part of the process.”
How the Case Began
The case stemmed from a May 14 Bayou La Batre City Council meeting, where Dungan and Councilwoman Annette Johnson clashed during a heated exchange that was captured on the city’s meeting audio. The confrontation escalated to the point that deputies with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office later arrested Dungan in connection with the incident, an unusual step for a dispute arising inside a municipal council chamber in the Alabama fishing town.
Evidence submitted to the court included photographs showing bruising on Johnson’s arm and a cracked table, which Johnson said resulted from the confrontation. Audio from the meeting captured Johnson telling Dungan to keep his hands off her. Prosecutors presented those items during the District Court trial that ended in the harassment conviction, which Johnson pursued as a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony assault allegation.
The May meeting was not the first time tension between the mayor and council members had spilled into public view. Residents who attend the town’s council sessions say disagreements over budgets, personnel and the direction of the city’s seafood-dependent economy have periodically flared into sharp exchanges, but the May incident was the first to produce criminal charges against a sitting mayor in recent memory.
The harassment charge itself is a misdemeanor under Alabama law, typically alleging conduct intended to harass, annoy or alarm another person. Compared with assault charges, it carries lighter potential penalties, but a conviction still becomes part of a permanent criminal record and, for an elected official, carries reputational consequences that outlast any sentence. District Court Judge Bob Sherling presided over the trial and found Dungan guilty, prompting the defense to activate the appeal process within minutes of the ruling.
Hickman’s decision to file the notice on the spot reflected the compressed timeline misdemeanor appeals demand in Alabama. Notices must be filed within days of a District Court judgment, and missing the window would have locked in the conviction. By filing immediately, the defense preserved every option, from a full jury trial in Circuit Court to a negotiated resolution, while the case record moves upstairs.
What Happens Next
An appeal of a misdemeanor conviction to circuit court works differently from most appeals in Alabama. Because the case moves as a trial de novo, the circuit court treats it as if the District Court trial never happened: prosecutors must present the evidence again, the defense can raise its arguments again, and a new jury hears the case from scratch. Hickman said the process will include an arraignment and a status hearing before trial, stages that his client is prepared to work through.
“He realizes that this is just part of the process,” Hickman said, describing the mayor’s outlook as the case heads toward a second round of litigation. Trial dates in Mobile County Circuit Court depend on the court’s docket, and a timeline for the case’s move to Circuit Court had not been set as of the appeal filing.
Johnson’s Response
Johnson said after the verdict that she planned to keep her distance from the mayor going forward but expressed confidence that a jury would reach the same conclusion as District Court Judge Bob Sherling, who issued the guilty verdict in the first trial. Her comments suggested she does not intend to let the appeal derail the work of the council, even as the case returns to a courtroom.
She said her focus remained on the city’s finances and day-to-day operations, adding that the council could not afford to be distracted from getting the city’s bills paid. The reminder reflected the practical pressures facing Bayou La Batre, a city of roughly 2,000 residents whose budget depends heavily on the seafood industry, harbor operations and state and federal support for its working waterfront.
Council members have little room to maneuver when bills come due. The city’s harbor and seafood processors anchor the local economy, and disruptions at City Hall ripple quickly into services residents rely on, from street repairs to the volunteer fire response. Johnson’s insistence that the council stay focused on paying the city’s bills struck many residents as a practical message rather than a political one, and several who attended recent meetings said they want the litigation resolved without pulling the council further from its ordinary work.
Legal observers note that the councilwoman will have to testify again in the retrial, reliving the confrontation before a new jury. Evidence like the photographs and meeting audio will be introduced a second time, and the defense will get another opportunity to challenge how the items were collected and presented. The retrial gives both sides a clean slate, but it also repeats the strain on everyone involved — including a small city government whose meetings remain the public backdrop for the dispute.
Residents along the bayou say they are following the case closely, and several have called for cooler heads at future meetings. The town council’s regular sessions continue in the meantime, with agendas posted as usual and the public invited to attend. Whatever the Circuit Court jury ultimately decides, the immediate task for both the mayor and the council remains the one Johnson described: keep the city’s bills paid and its harbor working while the lawyers handle the rest.
What It Means for the Mayor’s Office
Because the charge is a misdemeanor, the conviction does not affect Dungan’s status as mayor while the appeal proceeds. Under Alabama law, a municipal officeholder facing misdemeanor charges generally remains in office unless a conviction becomes final, and the trial de novo appeal resets that clock entirely. Dungan continues to preside over council meetings and manage the city’s administration as the case winds through the courts.
That arrangement leaves the city in a delicate position. Council meetings continue with both the mayor and the councilwoman who accused him present at the same table, and city employees must carry out directions from an administration locked in litigation with a member of its own governing body. Residents have watched the arrangement with a mix of frustration and resignation, noting that the town has weathered hurricanes, oil spills and economic upheaval before, and that its government has always been personal in scale.
A Small Town Under Strain
Bayou La Batre sits on the western shore of Mobile Bay and has long been known as one of Alabama’s most important seafood-producing communities, home to a fleet of shrimp boats and processing houses that supply markets across the Gulf Coast. The town gained wider fame as a filming location for the movie Forrest Gump, but its daily reality is defined by the fishing industry, which has contracted for decades under foreign competition, storm damage and rising costs. City leaders there have traditionally worked closely together out of necessity, which is part of why the mayor-council rift has drawn attention well beyond the town limits.
The mayor-council structure compounds the strain. In Bayou La Batre, as in most Alabama municipalities of its size, the mayor presides over meetings and oversees daily operations while the council controls spending and ordinances — a structure that requires the two branches to work together on nearly every decision. When the branches are locked in personal conflict, routine items like approving invoices or scheduling public works can stall, which is precisely the outcome Johnson said she is determined to avoid.
Whether the appeal resolves the conflict or prolongs it, both sides now face months of legal procedure before a jury in downtown Mobile — a long way from the council chamber where the dispute began. For a town whose residents are more accustomed to watching the weather than the courts, the case has become an unwanted spotlight, and its outcome will shape how Bayou La Batre’s government functions long after the verdict is read.
The episode added friction to the small Mobile County fishing town’s local government, where Dungan and members of the council have periodically clashed over city business in recent years. City Hall watchers say the coming months will test whether the town’s institutions can function while its top officials remain on opposite sides of a courtroom.