A Las Vegas mother walked out of court without a prison term on Wednesday, receiving probation instead for an August 2025 Target theft that left a Metro officer half inside a moving SUV. Keneshia Dixon pleaded guilty to a resisting-a-public-officer charge tied to the incident and was ordered to serve 24 months of probation on a suspended sentence. The judge also required mental health and impulse control counseling and warned that any probation violations could still land her in prison.
During the hearing, District Judge Kathleen Delaney took time to unpack the clunky language in the paperwork, where Dixon admitted to "resisting a public officer with the use of a firearm." Prosecutors used that phrasing because the statute did not clearly address using a vehicle as a weapon, the court was told. The plea deal cleared more serious counts from the case, and the state declined to make a formal sentencing recommendation, according to Court TV.
How the parking lot struggle unfolded
The confrontation started shortly after 7 p.m. on Aug. 1 at the Target on Blue Diamond Road. Surveillance video shows Dixon, her teenage daughter and two other juveniles taking baby clothes, stuffing them into bags and walking out without paying. Body camera and bystander footage then captured Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer Chadly Dingle wrestling with the group before he was shoved into a white SUV. He was dragged through the parking lot with his legs hanging out of a rear door as the vehicle sped off, and officers eventually stopped the SUV only after it crashed, according to FOX5 Las Vegas. Witnesses estimated the vehicle reached speeds of 30 to 50 mph as the officer clung on.
Charges and indictment
Metro officers arrested Dixon and the three juveniles at the scene, and a grand jury later indicted her on multiple felony counts, including burglary, resisting a public officer with the use of a dangerous weapon and second degree kidnapping. Transcripts from Officer Dingle's body camera footage, released during the investigation, show him telling jurors he was "just trying to survive" while struggling to get free. Officials said he suffered a herniated lower disk along with other injuries, according to Police1.
Sentence, conditions and what comes next
Judge Delaney ultimately opted against prison time, instead imposing 24 months of probation and keeping the jail term hanging over Dixon's head as a suspended sentence. The court also ordered mental health and impulse control counseling, barred her from contacting the officer and banned her from the Target location involved. Delaney cautioned that if Dixon violates probation, the suspended sentence could be activated, which the judge said could translate to roughly 19 to 48 months behind bars. Officer Dingle did not attend the hearing, and Dixon apologized in court, telling the judge she had lost her job because of the case, according to Court TV.
