A Dallas salon owner will spend a week in jail that has 248 inmates with coronavirus. She’s also being fined $7,000 and another $500 a day despite the fact that Governor Abbott announced shortly before she opened that salons and barbershops could open.
She opened in violation of contempt of court order Tuesday so the judge found against her.
The owner Shelley Luther was taken into custody immediately as if she was a common criminal.
Ms. Luther put all social distancing guidelines in place with 6 feet between stations, hand sanitizing stations are in place, and everyone has masks.
She explained that she couldn’t feed her family and her employees couldn’t either but the judge didn’t care.
In a hearing broadcast live on YouTube on Tuesday, Luther said she had no choice but to open her business.
She said she hadn’t earned income since the county’s stay-at-home order was set in March. She applied for one of the federal loans aimed at helping small businesses but didn’t receive it until Sunday, she testified.
SHE COULDN’T FEED HER FAMILY
“I couldn’t feed my family, and my stylists couldn’t feed their families,” Luther testified, holding a phone to her face from the witness stand so the court reporter could hear her through a mask.
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Before issuing his ruling, Judge Moyé gave Luther an opportunity to apologize and promise not to reopen her salon until she was allowed to do so, saying he would consider levying only a fine “in lieu of the incarceration which you’ve demonstrated that you have so clearly earned.”
Luther, however, defended her actions to the very end.
“Feeding my kids is not selfish,” she told Moyé. “If you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision, but I am not going to shut the salon.”
Minutes earlier, Gov. Greg Abbott had announced during a news conference that barbershops and salons across Texas could reopen Friday.
These edicts from the mini-dictators are not laws. The judge did not have to put her in prison or fine her. The judge must be a Democrat, the caring party.
Senator Cruz weighed in:
7 days in jail for cutting hair?? This is NUTS. And government officials don’t get to order citizens to apologize to them for daring to earn a living. https://t.co/3rulRlN0gE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 6, 2020
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