Anthony “Tony” Long, a Perry County commissioner who served as mayor of Marion from 2004 to 2016, has filed suit against the City of Marion, accusing the city of failing to carry out its legal duties in two separate matters: its handling of records and proceedings connected to his arrest last year, and its reporting of payroll taxes withheld from his salary while he was in office.
The complaint was filed June 17 in Perry County Circuit Court and assigned case number 53-CV-2026-900024.00. Long is represented by Wetumpka attorney Jim L. DeBardelaben.
The suit names the City of Marion as the only defendant and was served on the city through the city clerk.
The larger portion of the complaint concerns the arrest.
According to the filing, Long was arrested by the City of Marion on March 18, 2025, and the appearance bond he signed that day at the Perry County Jail listed charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
The complaint states that Long has received no correspondence from the Municipal Court of Marion about the case and knows the charges only from that bond.
On April 17, 2025, according to the complaint, DeBardelaben sent the municipal court a certified letter, return receipt requested, asking for the entire case file, the police report, all charges against Long, and any audio or video of the incident. The letter also enclosed a notice of appearance entering the case on Long’s behalf.
A return receipt attached to the complaint shows the letter was received and signed for at the court on April 21, 2025. The complaint states the court never replied.
More than a year later, the complaint states, the case has not been set for a hearing, neither Long nor his attorney has received any notice of a setting or any of the requested records, and the appearance bond has not been released.
The complaint asks the court to order the city to provide the reason for the arrest and the related evidence so that Long can have an opportunity to clear his name or have the charges dismissed.
The second part of the complaint concerns Long’s time in office.
The filing alleges that the city withheld Social Security and Medicare contributions from his mayoral salary and reported those withholdings to him, but that information Long later received from the Social Security Administration appears to indicate the city did not report his salary or withholdings to the agency, as required by law, for 2009, 2010, and 2011.
The complaint asks the court to order the city to perform its statutory duties and to produce proof of his salary, the amounts withheld, and the amounts paid in for those three years.
The unanswered documents request fits a pattern the Times-Standard-Herald has reported upon in its coverage of Marion, in which the city has not responded to open records requests, including requests filed by this newspaper, and in which the operation of the municipal court has remained in question, including the staffing of its combined magistrate and clerk position.
Those earlier requests came from a newspaper.
This one came from an attorney seeking the file in his client’s own criminal case, a prosecution the complaint says the city itself brought.
