Salon Owner Sentenced to a Week in Jail for Reopening Business
An unrepentant Texas salon owner was locked up Tuesday for refusing to apologize for opening her business in defiance of a lockdown order and continuing to operate in violation of a judge’s temporary restraining order.
In a bitter dose of irony, Shelley Luther’s sentencing and a fine of $7,000 came just minutes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced salons like Luther’s could reopen on May 11, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Luther reopened Salon à la Mode on April 24, and ripped up a letter from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins ordering her to close her business or face the consequences.
“If I have to go to jail to prove a point that what they’re doing is totally unconstitutional, then that’s what happens,” she said in a Facebook live video posted April 28. “I’m not scared to.”
According to Luther, she hadn’t earned income since March, when stay-at-home orders were first put in place in Texas, and only received assistance from a federal small business loan as of Sunday.
On Tuesday, Judge Eric Moyé gave Luther the option of avoiding her sentence if she would apologize and remain closed until the Friday date set by Abbott.
Moyé’s condition for Luther to avoid spending seven days in jail was that Luther “acknowledge that your own actions were selfish, putting your own interest ahead of those in the community in which you live,” according to CBSDFW.
“I couldn’t feed my family, and my stylists couldn’t feed their families,” Luther said to the judge.
In a video excerpt of his comments posted on Twitter, Moyé told her that “society cannot function where one’s own belief in a concept of liberty permits you to flaunt your disdain for the rulings of duly elected officials.”
He said she did “owe an apology to the elected officials whom you disrespected” by “flagrantly ignoring and in one case defiling their orders which you now know obviously apply to you.”
Moyé said it was important that Luther “understand that the proper way in which in an ordered society to engage concerns which you may have had was to hire a lawyer and advocate for change, an exception or an amendment to laws that you find offensive.”
He told Luther that she had “clearly earned” her sentence of jail time.
Judge Eric Moyé asked Luther if she would make a statement admitting she was wrong and selfish. Listen here… pic.twitter.com/6JMukC3v76
— Andrea Lucia (@CBS11Andrea) May 5, 2020
In her response, Luther stated she has “much respect for this court and laws.”
But she was not cowed.
“I have to say that I disagree with you, sir, when you say that I’m selfish, because feeding my kids is not selfish. I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids. So, sir, 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.”
The judge told Shelley Luther she
could avoid jail time if she apologized, admitted she was wrong, and agreed to close her hair salon until it was allowed to open.This is her response…@CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/1phdNUsLme
— Andrea Lucia (@CBS11Andrea) May 5, 2020
The sentence irked Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who tweeted, “These punishments are NOT just. They are not reasonable. Small-minded ‘leaders’ across the country have become drunk with power. This must end.”
These punishments are NOT just. They are not reasonable. Small-minded “leaders” across the country have become drunk with power. This must end. https://t.co/d31aEZg8b4
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 6, 2020
Luther’s attorney, Warren Norred, said the salon will remain open, which ups the fine against it by $500 for each day it is open until Abbott’s order to reopen business goes into effect Friday.
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