Kenneth Bryan Dawson, of 1819 News
A convicted drug dealer, thief, and violent offender, who ultimately raised $6 million for Donald Trump and other GOP candidates in 2020, approved publication of a journalistic "hit job" that led to the suicide of small-town Alabama mayor Fred "Bubba" Copeland, according to a report this morning at donaldwatkins.com. Kenneth Bryan Dawson -- after a crime spree that led to 16 years of incarceration in Colorado -- moved to Alabama and became enmeshed in the worlds of Evangelical Christianity, right-wing media, and politics. That led to his current roles as president, CEO, and publisher of 1819 News, which produced a series of articles about Copeland's cross-dressing lifestyle, leading to the death of the Smiths Station, AL, mayor by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In signing off on the Copeland story, Dawson played the role of what Watkins describes as a "shot caller." How did Dawson, whose record includes a case of aggravated assault that led to the death of a police informant in Colorado, reach a platform from which he could make editorial decisions that would upend life in one section of rural Alabama. Watkins traces the violent, drug-riddled road that led Dawson into the conservative, Bible-thumping world of Alabama right-wingers. Under the headline "Kenneth Bryan Dawson: The “Shot Caller” Who Sanctioned 1819 News' Hit Job on Fred "Bubba" Copeland," Watkins writes:
Kenneth Bryan Dawson is the president, CEO, and publisher of 1819 News, the publication that caused Smiths Station, Alabama, mayor, pastor, and businessman Fred Lavon “Bubba” Copeland to commit suicide on November 3, 2023. Dawson had final approval of the “hit piece” 1819 News published on Copeland on November 1, 2023.In prison jargon, Kenneth Bryan Dawson is the “shot caller” at 1819 News. "Shot callers" order, approve, and/or sanction "hit jobs" on designated "targets" for whatever reasons they think are necessary.
An emotionally distraught Copeland killed himself with a gun after 1819 News reporter Michael Craig Monger, a/k/a Craig Monger, published his premeditated “hit job” article online about Bubba Copeland and his cross-dressing fetish.
Craig Monger published this article six days after his parents' world crashed with the filing of bankruptcy petitions in a Nashville, Tennessee, federal court by Tricord Business Group, LLC, and his father Robert Earl Monger, a co-owner of Tricord. Monger’s mother, Juile Monger, was Tricord’s Chief People Officer.
Jeff Poor, 1819 News' editor-in-chief, approved publication of the article, as well. Poor was promoted to editor-in-chief in June 2023 "to lead the outlet to new heights as its 'head coach',” said Dawson. With Copeland's suicide, 1819 News reached this goal in a negative way.
Sifting through the detritus of Dawson's violent, drug-engorged criminal history is enough to make most anyone's skin crawl. The events that led him to be embraced by Alabama's Evangelicals are about as disturbing as they come. Here is the simple language Watkins uses to describe Dawson's transformation, which apparently has not fully taken hold: Dawson is a Violent Serial Offender Who Raised $6 Million for Donald Trump/GOP Candidates in 2020.
Alabama conservative Christians and politicians even have supported Dawson's business ventures. Watkins reports:
Kenneth Bryan Dawson is violent serial offender. Dawson has drug, theft, and aggravated assault convictions on his public record.
Dawson is known by his many aliases, including Bryan Dawson, Brian Dawson, and Kenneth B. Dawson. In Alabama, Dawson is known as “Bryan Dawson.”
Bryson Dawson is plugged into some of Alabama’s most powerful political players. This is particularly true for the ones who founded, operate, and fund the Alabama Policy Institute (API).
These politicos love Bryan Dawson. They have demonstrated their undying loyalty to Dawson by underwriting his financial security and business success in Alabama to the tune of $1,077,500 in 2021, alone.
Bryan Dawson also owns Reformation Media Consulting, LLC, a public relations company he founded on October 5, 2017.
How did Bryan Dawson, who has a criminal record that suggests he is a deeply, dangerously disturbed individual, come to be embraced by Alabama's professing Christians? It has a lot to do with money, Watkins explains:
Big-name power players who are attached to the Alabama Policy Institute (API) and its predecessor, the Alabama Family Alliance, have been able to overlook Bryan Dawson's mugshots, criminal-court records, and rap sheet of drug trafficking, thievery, and crimes of aggravated violence because he is a proven fundraiser for Trump and state GOP candidates. This list of API power players includes: (a) co-founder/Congressman Gary Palmer (R-Alabama), (b) co-founder/Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker (R-Alabama), (c) former API president Caleb Crosby, (d) current API president Stephanie Smith, and (e) API board member/Huntsville Attorney Rod Steakley.
Bryan Dawson was able to ingratiate himself to Alabama’s Bible-thumping "Evangelical Christian"community by telling them he is on a mission from God to save the world. As a result, they have joyfully ponied up big money for Dawson's various Alabama-based entities and enterprises, as well.
Dawson even lassoed the national grocery chain Publix into advertising with 1819 News. We have not been able to reach Publix to find out what commercial interest the grocery store chain had in teaming up with Dawson, considering his violent criminal history.
Colorado's court system is littered with the ugly details of Dawson's crime spree in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains -- and Watkins shines light on the records:
The state of Colorado knows Bryan Dawson really well. They know him by his real name -- Kenneth Bryan Dawson. He amassed a rap sheet of felony criminal charges in Colorado that would have impressed New York mobster John Gotti. At one point, Dawson’s violent criminal offenses subjected him to a possible 384 years in Colorado state prisons.
Dawson is a twice convicted cocaine drug dealer and convicted thief. Dawson has also had his probation revoked in his drug case(s).
Kenneth Bryan Dawson is also a very violent person. In 2007, Dawson was charged with 14 counts of Victim Retaliation, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Violent Crime that Caused Death, Aggravated Robbery with a Weapon, Burglary, Extortion, and Felony Menacing.
These charges grew out of an incident in which Dawson and another violent offender administered a savage beating to a police informant within days after Dawson was released from a county jail on his drug charges. Dawson and his accomplice bludgeoned the informant with a black jack. The victim's blood was everywhere.
As a “shot caller,” Dawson made the decision to retaliate against this informant for snitching on him in a drug case involving meth and possession of a firearm. After his release from jail, Dawson and his accomplice went to the informant’s house to administer the beating. They left the viciously beaten informant in the house to die. While he was in the house, Dawson also stole valuable items from the unconscious victim.
The criminal charges filed in Dawson's case indicate that this victim eventually died.
We have found no court record indicating Dawson expressed any remorse over the beating victim's death.
Dawson cut a plea deal with state prosecutors to dismiss all but one count of his violent victim-retaliation offenses. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in his aggravated assault/witness retaliation case.
Altogether, Dawson spent 16 years in county jails and state prisons for his multiple drug, theft, and crime of violence offenses.
What did such a favorable plea deal likely mean for Dawson's future? Watkins spells it out:
Plea-deal sentence reductions of the magnitude recorded in Dawson's case -- from 384 to 16 years -- almost always carry a lifetime obligation to serve as an "on-demand" law-enforcement snitch, tool, and/or resource person.
Upon his release from prison, Kenneth Bryan Dawson: (a) relocated to Alabama, (b) claimed to have experienced what Biblical scholars call a “Saul to Paul conversion along the road to Damascus,” (c) changed his alias to Bryan Dawson, (d) aligned himself with the Alabama Policy Institute, and (e) feasted off the Institute's "dark money" contributions and its constellation of political, business, and religious allies.
How did Dawson and 1819 News coalesce? A big factor, it appears was that individuals and entities with serious money were willing to overlook Dawson's rap sheet, Watkins reports:
1819 News is a conservative news website that focuses on the state of Alabama. The publication was launched in October 2021 as an affiliate of the Alabama Policy Institute (API).
1819 News was managed by a nonprofit corporation Dawson formed on June 1, 2021, named 1819 Media, LLC.
In 2021, the Alabama Policy Institute funneled $1,077,500 to 1819 Media, despite Dawson's rap sheet as a violent serial offender. Dawson dissolved 1819 Media on May 11, 2023.
On December 9, 2022, Bryan Dawson incorporated 1819 News LLC, as a “for-profit” limited liability company.
On December 9, 2022, Dawson also incorporated the Alabama Media Foundation, a nonprofit organization which still exists.
For all intents and purposes, 1819 News functions today as the multimedia platform and propaganda wing of the Alabama Policy Institute.
One of the Alabama Policy Institute’s influential board members is Huntsville attorney Rod Steakley, who also serves as legal counsel to Alabama A&M University. Steakley is presently guiding Alabama A&M’s efforts to surreptitiously forgo its collection of a $527,289,064 debt that is owed to the university by the state of Alabama. The U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture publicly announced this indebtedness on September 18, 2023.
Reportedly, Attorney Rod Steakley has not disclosed to Alabama A&M's board of trustees: (a) the exact nature and scope of the Alabama Policy Institute's working relationship with serial offender Kenneth Bryan Dawson, (b) API's "dark money" funding of Dawson's entities, and (c) any real or apparent conflicts of interest that may have arisen from Steakley's involvement as an API board member in these events, considering Bubba Copeland's recent suicide.
On November 2, 2023, the Alabama Policy Institute awarded embattled U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) its Warrior Award at the organization's annual dinner. Tuberville has become infamous in Washington for his unrepentant racist remarks about black Americans and his controversial blockage of hundreds of top military promotions across all branches of America's armed forces.
Bubba Copeland's death now is the subject of a state criminal investigation, Watkins reports:
On November 1, 2023, 1819 News outed Bubba Copeland as a cross-dresser. It was a cold, calculated, media “hit job.”
Craig Monger’s article included social media posts from Copeland, under a pseudonym, and photos in which he wore women's clothing.
Copeland committed suicide two days after Monger published his article.
On November 7, 2023, 1819 News commenced what some have characterized as a “victim shaming” campaign against a deceased Bubba Copeland and his grieving family. This campaign centers around an 1819 News article about two local women who claimed their names, images, and likenesses had been used by Copeland in erotic fiction, without their consent.
Interestingly, 1819 News did not say: (a) whether Bubba Copeland used the names, images, and likenesses (NIL) of these two women in any written or photographic depiction of published pornography; or (b) whether Copeland used the NIL in a commercial or "for-profit" context; or (c) whether Copeland received a financial gain from the NIL that was not reported on his Alabama Ethics Commission Statement of Economic Interest form for 2023.
Likewise, 1819 News did not say whether the women featured in the November 7th article filed a lawsuit against Copeland for allegedly invading their privacy or defaming them before Craig Monger published his November 1, 2023, "hit job" article. We found no record of any such lawsuit(s) being filed in Lee County.
Bubba Copeland's death now is the subject of a state criminal investigation by the Lee County Sheriff's office and county district attorney.
A former Alabama State Senator named Tom Whatley could eventually enter the picture, Watkins reports:
Reliable confidential sources tell us that former state senator Tom Whatley (R-Auburn) may have been the person who painted a target on Bubba Copeland’s back to facilitate the 1819 News “hit job.” We do not have independent confirmation of this news report at this time.
However, in 2021, Tom Whatley was caught looking at transgender porn online, just a week after he voted in favor of a bill that restricted transgender minors’ access to lifesaving health care. Whatley "liked" an explicit tweet by the account “Bambi Hardcore TG 18+,” who describes him/herself as an “enbi trans girl faerie princess.”
In June 2022, Whatley, who was arrested in 2014 for domestic violence, lost his re-election bid by one vote.
Another confidential source claims that a federal law-enforcement agency in Alabama may have provided additional information to 1819 News after the agency determined that Copeland's fetish, while unusual, was not illegal. This kind of federal law enforcement activity occurs often. The FBI's forced suicide of Hollywood actress Jean Seberg in 1970 is the best know example of how this type of law-enforcement misconduct works.
Given the drastic reduction in Dawson's criminal sentences -- from facing 384 years in prison to only serving 16 years behind bars, he fits the profile of a law-enforcement "resource person." Dawson also operates the type of media platform the FBI used in the Jean Seberg forced suicide case.
Here are details about Bubba Copeland's visitation and funeral, from donaldwatkins.com:
The family of Bubba Copeland will receive friends on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Vance Brooks Funeral Home in Phenix City, Alabama. A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at First Baptist of Phenix City.
Bubba Copeland is survived by his loving wife Angela Simpson Copeland; his mother, Cora Annell Flowers Green and husband Hershal; his father, Fred L. Copeland Sr. and wife Cheryl of Valley, AL; a son, Carter L. Copeland; two daughters, AbbyKate Elizabeth Dawson and Ally Catherine Dawson; three sisters, Kimberlee Copeland Funk and husband Stephen; Terri Register and husband Noel and Ginger Green; and two brothers, Mike Green and wife Mardelle and Bill Green and wife Brandy.
May Fred Lavon "Bubba" Copeland Rest In Peace. Hopefully, something good will come out of Copeland's unfortunate death.
