Shelley Luther Sentenced to Seven Days in Jail for Opening Dallas Hair Salon During Coronavirus Lockdown

Dallas hair salon owner Shelley Luther was sentenced Tuesday to seven days in jail and fined $7,000 for opening her business Salon a la Mode to customers last week in defiance of COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus lockdown orders. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is allowing hair salons to reopen this Friday, but a defiant Luther would not commit to closing her shop until then.

Luther’s court appearance was livestreamed. Judge Eric Moye demanded Luther apologize to elected officials.

KTVT-TV reporter Andrea Lucia posted video clips from the sentencing:

“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.”

Screen image via WFAA.

WFAA-TV reported on the hearing, noting that Luther said she took a government loan for her business. Excerpt:

A Dallas salon owner who has continued offering services despite a citation, cease-and-desist letter and a restraining order was sentenced on Monday to seven days in jail.

In Tuesday afternoon’s hearing, Dallas Civil District Judge Eric Moyé also ordered her to pay thousands in fines for refusing to shut down her salon in violation of shelter in place orders…

…Luther took the stand saying she had to open out of necessity.

“I have no choice. I need to feed my family and my stylists could not feed their families,” Luther said.

But she also testified she had recently received a loan from the federal government.

The judge became visibly upset after being interrupted twice and having to tell Luther’s attorney to sit down.

“You will not interrupt me in my courtroom,” Moyé said.

City attorneys argued that it didn’t matter how Luther was operating her salon and that the only issue at hand was whether she was open in violation of the temporary restraining order.

Moyé asked Luther if she was still operating to this day.

“Yes, partially,” Luther said…

Luther spoke last week with Glenn Beck about her situation:

Complete court hearing livestreamed on YouTube:

Part Two:

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Kristinn Taylor has contributed to The Gateway Pundit for over ten years. Mr. Taylor previously wrote for Breitbart, worked for Judicial Watch and was co-leader of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com. He studied journalism in high school, visited the Newseum and once met David Brinkley.

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