Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he never envisioned a salon owner being jailed for violating his stay-at-home orders amid coronavirus, as he lashed out Wednesday at a judge who put a mother behind bars for seven days for refusing to shutter her shop.
Attorney General Ken Paxton was even more pointed, wondering why Dallas County, which has released hundreds of people from its jails to try to limit risks of COVID-19, would now boost its population by a non-violent offender who wanted to make a living.
“A community that released all those people, some of whom committed serious crimes, can certainly stand to release one more — a mother whose only crime was operating a small business in an effort to feed her children,” Mr. Paxton said in a letter demanding the release of salon owner Shelley Luther.
Ms. Luther’s incarceration has gone viral, as those on both sides of the national shutdown debate ponder her defiance, the state of the economy and when to reopen.
On Tuesday Judge Eric V. Moye in Dallas County ordered Ms. Luther jailed for seven days. That works out to one for each day she defied a previous temporary restraining order.
With a mask covering his mouth, the judge gave Ms. Luther a chance to avoid the penalty, saying if she would admit she was “selfish,” apologize and agree to remain closed until the rules change, he would consider only slapping her with a fine.
“You owe an apology to the elected officials whom you disrespected,” he said.
She refused, saying she was standing on principle.
“I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I’m selfish, because feeing my kids is not selfish,” she told him. “I have hair stylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids.”
Judge Moye then found her guilty of both civil and criminal contempt of court and imposed the jail sentence — “one day for each day that you violated this court’s order.” Ms. Luther was also fined $7,000, $1,000 for each day she was open in defiance of the order.
Mr. Abbott, whose shutdown orders are at the center of the brouhaha, said in a statement Wednesday that this wasn’t what he’d envisioned, and jail should be a last resort.
“Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety; however, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother,” he said.
Ms. Luther’s attorney filed a petition with the state’s 5th District Appellate Court on Wednesday, challenging her imprisonment, but some Texans are calling on Mr. Abbott to go beyond criticizing the judge and intervene in the case with a pardon.
A GoFundMe campaign, started in April, had raised nearly $370,000 for Ms. Luther as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. The organizer said Ms. Luther will get all the money.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took to Twitter on Wednesday and said he would personally cover “the $7K fine she had to pay and I volunteer to be placed under House Arrest so she can go to work and feed her kids.”
Texas has been a critical testing ground for those who want to see a faster pace of reopenings.
It reports having 34,422 cases of positive COVID-19 tests, with 948 deaths attributed to the disease. As of Wednesday evening the state’s hospitals reported 1,812 COVID-19 patients.
But nearly 40 of the state’s 254 counties still haven’t detected a single case.
That variation makes Texas, like some other states with large rural-urban splits, tricky to model, or to devise policies for.
Mr. Abbott was one of the first governors to announce moves to relax shutdown orders, laying out several phases of action — though stressing that businesses can voluntarily remain closed if they choose.
In late April, he said restaurants, movie theaters and retail stores could reopen as long as they operated at no more than 25% capacity.
Beaches also opened, sparking a massive rush of visitors over the weekend and leaving some localities to beg the state for help in managing the crowds, which the Galveston Daily News said were similar to a normal summer weekend.
The crowds also had little to do but remain on the beach, with most establishments still shut down.
“I think we are really ready to get out of the house,” Courtney Allison, from San Antonio more than 200 miles away, told the Galveston paper.
Mr. Abbott has initially said phase two of his reopening would happen May 18. But on Tuesday he sped up the timeline, saying salons and barber shops could open this Friday, as long as work stations were spaced at least six feet apart.
Wedding venues were also given the OK to reopen, with outdoor areas able to run in full, and those inside limited to 25% capacity.
Office buildings will still have to wait until May 18 in limited fashion.
Rep. Kevin Brady, Texas Republican, said Wednesday that Mr. Abbott had “opened a big can of common sense on how you reopen these businesses.”
“Texas is reopening safely,” he told Fox News Radio. “We are the second largest state for population in the country, but just ninth in the number of cases. The growth of new cases is slowing despite the fact our testing is hitting record levels.”
But the state is now in the public eye, thanks to Ms. Luther’s case.
Mr. Paxton said Judge Moye’s ruling was “shameful.”
He said Dallas has already released about 1,000 people from jail to try to lower COVID-19 risks, and the county’s prosecutor had already said he wouldn’t pursue charges on some crimes. The sheriff has also requested law enforcement agencies show restraint to avoid unnecessarily adding to his numbers.
Mr. Paxton called for similar discretion in the case of Ms. Luther.
He pointed out that under Mr. Abbott’s updated order, Ms. Luther would be allowed to reopen her salon legally in two days anyway.
Judges in Texas are elected. Judge Moye is a Democrat and on the ballot in November.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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