Assemblymember Tina McKinnor and Inglewood mayoral candidate Fre’Drisha Dixon spent half a day in court last week, bringing with them prominent local figures including Mayor James Butts, as they each asked a judge for a restraining order against the other.
The two filed for restraining orders against each other after Dixon, an attorney and activist, confronted McKinnor at the Sept. 15 City Council meeting for praising Inglewood’s leadership, which kicked off a heated argument. In the end, LA Superior Court Judge Lucy Armendariz was quick to shoot down both restraining order requests on Thursday. The judge said neither of the two presented evidence of a credible threat of violence or a pattern of alarming conduct.
But it’s the latest sign of how contentious Inglewood’s election season has been, with candidates trading barbs and misconduct allegations. Dixon claimed this summer that one of her rivals used the N-word, which the other candidate denied. In September, a City Council candidate alleged that Butts inappropriately touched a girl at a city event, which he also denied while describing the accusation as politically motivated.
Last week’s court hearing put the city’s election battle lines on full display.
Dixon is one of five candidates trying to unseat Butts as he runs for reelection to a fifth term on Nov. 3. Butts carries an endorsement from McKinnor and took the witness stand Thursday to testify on the assemblymember’s behalf.
Dixon’s own witnesses included City Council candidate Yolanda Davidson and two aunts of Bryan Bostic who have been demonstrating for months asking for information about their nephew’s death in police custody.
Dixon said she believed that McKinnor’s restraining order request — which asked to bar the mayoral candidate from entering City Hall — was a campaign attack. McKinnor countered that her offices are in the building and she was only worried for her safety in a modern political climate that sometimes turns violent.
Each told The LA Local they accept the judge’s decision, but still feel unsafe around the other.
Dixon said in court that her family in Tennessee grew worried enough for her safety amid her exchanges with Inglewood’s political brass that one of her uncles flew out to stay with her.
McKinnor said public office has become a dangerous job and referenced the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker last summer.
“I would just ask the public to drop the temperature a little bit, so we can talk,” McKinnor said.
Here’s what happened on Sept. 15
During the Sept. 15 council meeting, McKinnor had just finished delivering a public comment praising the city’s leadership and was walking out of the council chamber’s glass doors when she passed Dixon standing in the lobby.
Two LA Local reporters, sitting at least 30 feet away on the far side of the council chamber, watched Dixon shout as McKinnor passed. “Shame,” Dixon shouted. It was difficult to determine how the interaction escalated, only that it did.
Witnesses called by McKinnor during last week’s hearing told the judge they saw Dixon move toward the assemblymember. Some of Dixon’s witnesses said it was the other way around.
Everyone agreed there was a commotion.
During the meeting, Butts ordered police officers to escort McKinnor to the elevator. The assemblymember told the court that as she left, she was angry and threw up a middle finger.
McKinnor was the first to ask for a restraining order, writing that while Dixon made no verbal threats of violence, her conduct made McKinnor believe the mayoral candidate was going to attack her.
Dixon said she called McKinnor a liar and told her she should be ashamed, but that nothing she said amounted to a threat. She filed her own restraining order request two weeks later over the assemblymember’s actions after leaving the meeting.
Witnesses testified that McKinnor began to vent after the elevator doors closed and the assemblymember admitted she said Dixon had her “fucked up” and that she’d “fuck her up.”
The assemblymember told the judge she meant no physical threat, but that she’d take Dixon to court. She told The LA Local after the hearing that her words in the elevator were a private conversation, not directed at Dixon, and didn’t amount to a threat.
