Former Kenner mayoral candidate Dona Reynaud pleaded no contest last month to a reduced charge in connection with a late-night brawl at a local casino more than a year ago, wrapping up a case that made waves among political circles in the Jefferson Parish city when it first came to light.

On Friday, meanwhile, Kenner police and Reynaud both released copies of casino surveillance videos that for the first time provide a glimpse at the melee.

Reynaud said the video backs up her story that she was defending herself; police countered that it showed she was actually the instigator.

Prosecutors at Jefferson’s 1st Parish Court in Metairie had initially filed a misdemeanor charge accusing Reynaud, 50, with disturbing the peace before her arrest in the May 18, 2018, fracas at the Treasure Chest Casino.

But on June 18, that charge was reduced to one count of violating a parish ordinance prohibiting loud noise, and Reynaud entered a no-contest plea to the amended allegation under a law allowing her to get the resulting conviction expunged from her record because she was a first-time offender, court records show.

Expungement permits defendants to omit mention of a conviction when applying for jobs, buying guns and in other situations.

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Reynaud’s attorney, Vinny Mosca, said she wasn’t required to serve any jail time or pay a fines or court costs. Mosca also said the man opposite Reynaud during the casino scrap had since suffered a stroke, leaving him unable to attend court and leading to the conclusion of the case.

At the time of the arrest, Kenner police said Reynaud appeared drunk when she approached a man and woman sitting at a table in a lounge at the Treasure Chest. Reynaud argued with the woman, told her “it was not the time to be line dancing,” sat down next to her and pushed the man, police said. Police said the man pushed her back when someone arrived to pull Reynaud away.

Police said Reynaud then took off her high heels, ran back to the table and knocked the seated man to the floor after punching him. Police said the pair were still tussling when security arrived to separate them.

The man wasn’t arrested, but Reynaud was jailed after she refused to sign a court summons, police said. She was out on a $300 bond at the time the case was resolved.

She has insisted she was trying to resolve a conflict with the woman when the man became aggressive. “The guy jumped up and reached over and pushed me,” she said Friday.

Former Kenner mayoral candidate arrested after drunken casino brawl, police say Dona Reynaud, a former candidate for mayor of Kenner and the wife of Kenner City Councilman Keith Reynaud, was arrested Thursday night after p…

+2 Former Kenner mayoral candidate says police got it wrong after casino brawl, arrest Dona Reynaud, a failed candidate for Kenner mayor this spring, was arrested early Friday after a late-night brawl at the Treasure Chest Casino…

A surveillance video obtained from Kenner police through a public records request and one provided by Reynaud make it difficult to tell who pushed whom first, but largely seem to back the police version of events.

Reynaud and the woman appear to be having an animated conversation when the man stands and leans over the two of them, the videos show. Reynaud reacts by standing up and pushing him, and he pushes back.

The two are separated and Reynaud's husband, then-Kenner City Councilman Keith Reynaud, appears to be trying to pull her away. While talking with her husband, Dona Reynaud kicks off her shoes, and a moment later charges at the man, who had returned to his seat. The two topple over in a heap amid flailing limbs as security and other patrons rush to intervene.

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Earlier this month, Reynaud said on Facebook that all the charges against her had been dropped. She said Friday that she pleaded to the noise ordinance violation only to make the case go away.

“I (pleaded) out to get it over with,” she said. “They dragged it out over a year.”

Keith Reynaud was serving his last few months on the council at the time of the arrest. Dona Reynaud had been a vocal critic of Mayor Ben Zahn and was one of two challengers in Zahn’s March 2018 run for mayor, which he handily won. Reynaud was the runner-up with 11 percent of the vote.

The previous year, police investigated whether Dona Reynaud may have slapped Zahn’s college-age son on the shoulder during an argument over a place in line to meet the Victory Belles singers at Kenner’s Festa Italiana. Authorities never filed charges in that case.

Keith Reynaud didn't seek reelection in 2018.