An Arkansas State Police trooper resigned under pressure after his estranged wife included dozens of racist and offensive text messages in court filings tied to their custody battle, a move that triggered an internal affairs investigation and ended his law enforcement career within days.
Michael Austin Kennedy, 32, left the agency around May 15, just two days after his wife, Alana Kennedy, 33, filed an amended complaint in their divorce case that laid bare text messages in which the trooper used slurs targeting Black, Latino, Indian, Muslim, and LGBTQ people. The Daily Mail detailed the court filings and the rapid sequence of events that followed.
The messages are indefensible on their face. But the timeline of the case raises hard questions about motive, leverage, and the weaponization of family courts, questions that deserve honest answers even when the underlying conduct is repugnant.
The Kennedys' marriage had been unraveling for months. Austin Kennedy moved out of the couple's Bauxite, Arkansas, home in January. By spring, the divorce had become a bare-knuckle custody dispute over their two children, Aaron and Alivia.
On May 7, Austin filed a motion for contempt against Alana, alleging she had threatened to publicly release embarrassing correspondence unless he agreed to her custody and child support demands. His filing quoted a text from Alana stating:
"But know that I am fully prepared to share whatever screenshots I have and I do not care if they end up on courtconnect for all the world to see if you don't agree to my terms."
He also cited messages from May 5 and May 6 in which Alana allegedly warned him that his reported history of drug use could be exposed to Arkansas State Police. One read: "Would probably not be great for you if ASP found out you lied about that in your application."
Six days after Austin's contempt motion, Alana filed her amended complaint on May 13. It included dozens of text messages in which Austin used racial slurs and made derogatory comments about minorities. Among the exhibits were photos of arrested minority suspects and a photo of three troopers posing with a handcuffed man, captioned "this is the better trophy pic."
The content of the messages was vile. In one, Austin referred to Latino workers with a slur and said the waste that "clogged up Aaron's toilet is worth more to me than any of them." In another, reacting to a news story about an off-duty officer killed by an illegal immigrant, he wrote: "White father of 3 killed right before Christmas by yet another wrong way driving drunk illegal sp**. You don't hate them enough."
Referencing the New Year's Eve 2025 terrorist attack in New Orleans, Austin wrote sarcastically: "A dirty turkey sand n***** attack in New Orleans. I love brown people and brown cultures. They're so lovely and diverse and I want my kids around more of them." In another text, he complained about being late home from Little Rock using a racial slur directed at Black people.
Arkansas State Police opened an internal affairs investigation after the messages became public. Austin resigned roughly two days after the amended complaint was filed.
His attorney, Matthew Ingle, filed a brief response that did not attempt to defend the language. Ingle stated:
"The defendant makes no excuse for those statements; they were entirely improper, do not reflect the defendant's values today and the defendant is profoundly ashamed of them."
Ingle added that the messages "date back several months" and that Alana had "sat on these messages" until they could benefit her legal position. Austin himself, in a May 19 filing, said his wife "followed through with her threats and attached the text messages that she had been threatening to publicly release." He also asked the court to seal all future documents from public view.
In separate texts included in the filings, Austin appealed to religion. "That is old, terrible stuff. I am not that person. I am a Christian now," he wrote. "I repented before God. Months ago. And here you are, destroying new me because of old me. Pure, raw evil."
Alana's attorneys responded on May 20 with a filing that painted a different picture. They wrote that Austin "continues to berate, harass and blame the plaintiff for his own behavior" and that "blaming others is exactly how the Defendant has been throughout the marriage." They also stated that Alana and one of the children were in therapy as a result of Austin's behavior.
The filing from Alana's legal team went further, arguing that "the text messages showing his bigotry and hatred toward humankind are perfect examples of how he treated his family because he feels he is supreme, and only his beliefs are correct."
None of this excuses the content of those messages. A law enforcement officer who uses that language, privately or otherwise, has disqualified himself from public trust. Austin Kennedy's resignation was the right outcome.
But the mechanics of how this played out deserve scrutiny. Austin's May 7 filing laid out a clear allegation: that Alana threatened to release the messages publicly unless he accepted her terms on custody and child support. She demanded full-time custody, with Austin limited to visitation every second weekend. She demanded child support payments. And she allegedly warned that she could expose his reported drug use to his employer.
When divorce records become public weapons, the consequences extend beyond the two adults involved. Two children, Aaron and Alivia Kennedy, sit at the center of this case. At least one is already in therapy.
Austin's own texts reveal a man who was bitter about child support, hostile toward his estranged wife, and consumed by grievance. He complained that "whatever 'child support' that would be stolen from me, would 100% go to DoorDash, Gym Shark sweatsuits, Amazon, 8 streaming services, new clothes for mom every week, and whatever other crap." He accused Alana of being "funded by 3 different men", her income, the man she was allegedly leaving him for, and her father.
He also made a disturbing admission in one message: "I have never threatened to kill you. I have threatened to kill Ethan Simpson." He added: "Because there is no justice in this world where innocent people die all the time and that motherf***** gets to live with no consequences." The identity of Ethan Simpson and the context of that threat remain unclear from the court filings.
Alana, for her part, accused Austin of cheating on her and of trying to have her jailed. "You are trying so hard to get me put in jail with one of the many women you cheated on me with and asking for sole custody for the sole purpose of tormenting me," she wrote. "You're still awful. You haven't changed at all."
The case carries an additional layer. Austin Kennedy's father, Mike Kennedy, serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Arkansas State Police, the same agency his son was forced to leave. Alana alleged in her filings that Austin and his father threatened to have her arrested for "stealing" money from a joint account. In an April 17 text, Alana taunted Austin about his legal representation, writing: "Your (sic) too embarrassed to admit your mommy and daddy paid it for you."
Whether the elder Kennedy's rank played any role in the internal affairs process or the speed of Austin's departure is an open question the filings do not answer.
The case also included Austin's text calling Bailey Morgan, a local justice of the peace candidate, a slur targeting his perceived sexuality, despite Morgan being described as heterosexual but supportive of LGBTQ rights. Austin also referenced the Daniel Penny case in New York City, using a racial slur to describe the family of the man who died on the subway.
High-profile custody disputes involving public figures are becoming grimly routine in American life. The pattern is familiar: private dysfunction becomes public spectacle, children become collateral, and the legal system struggles to protect anyone's interests.
This case stands out because both parties appear to have treated the courtroom as a battlefield rather than a forum for the welfare of two young children. Austin sent messages that no officer, no adult, should ever send. Alana, by her own husband's account and her own quoted texts, threatened to deploy those messages as leverage before she filed them as evidence.
When family court filings reveal the worst of both parties, the public is left to sort through the wreckage. In this case, the wreckage includes a disgraced trooper, a school counselor who may have weaponized legitimate grievances, and two children caught between parents who seem more interested in destroying each other than protecting them.
The custody and child support dispute remains unresolved. Austin has asked for future filings to be sealed. Alana's attorneys have accused him of continuing to harass her since the motions were filed. The children's welfare, the only thing that should matter, hangs in the balance.
Austin Kennedy earned his forced resignation. The messages he sent were not the product of a momentary lapse; they were, by his own attorney's admission, written over a period of months. No amount of religious conversion erases the record, and no law enforcement agency can retain an officer whose private communications reveal that kind of contempt for the people he was sworn to serve.
But the way those messages reached the public record, through what Austin's filings describe as a deliberate threat-and-release strategy tied to custody demands, should trouble anyone who cares about the integrity of family courts. Evidence of unfitness belongs before a judge. Using it as blackmail leverage first, and filing it only after the other side refuses to cave, looks less like concern for children and more like scorched-earth litigation.
Two kids in Bauxite, Arkansas, are growing up in the middle of this. One is already in therapy. The adults in their lives owe them better than a public demolition derby dressed up as a custody case.
