Dallas salon owner jailed for reopening in violation of court order

[alp227]

Source: Dallas Morning News

A Dallas salon owner will spend a week in jail after she was found in contempt of court Tuesday for violating an order to close her salon during the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, Shelley Luther was fined $7,000 for continuing to operate her business, Salon à la Mode, in violation of a judge’s temporary restraining order issued against the business.

[...]

Like other businesses deemed nonessential, Luther’s Far North Dallas salon was forced to close March 22 after the county enacted its stay-at-home order. She reopened the salon April 24 despite that order, and tore up a cease-and-desist letter from County Judge Clay Jenkins at a demonstration the next day.

[...]

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.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2020/05/05/dallas-salon-owner-ordered-to-spend-a-week-in-jail-for-keeping-salon-open/

[christx30]

1. I feel really bad for this lady.

She’ll probably lose everything due to the virus and the closure. I read on another part of this story where she was trying to help her employees by putting them back to work. Definitely better than Hobby Lobby’s during everyone.
There has to be a better solution than, “sucks to be you. Looks like you and your family are gonna starve. Oh well.”

[RandiFan1290]

4. Aww Bless your heart

I'm sure you can donate to her gofundme page.

[obamanut2012]

10. Same

She shouldn't have opened, but she is also losing her business. We need lockdowns to survive this, but it sucks for so many workers and owners.

[Habibi]

2. This seems unnecessarily harsh.

Why not just put a padlock on the salon door? Putting her at further risk in jail is just dumb and dangerous, and wiping her out financially is pouring salt in the wound.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. It wasn't so much for opening the salon ...

... as it was for tearing up a judge's order at a public demonstration. Then, when the judge told her that a fine and an apology would suffice, she refused to apologize. She's in jail for a week for defying a judge, not for cutting hair.

I'm sure with good behavior, she'll be out in four days.

Ironically, her state governor ordered that salons can reopen.

[tanyev]

7. Why didn't she just quietly defy the order?

She did several interviews with the Dallas station I watch. A couple were in advance of the date she opened up, to inform us that she was by God going to defy the order and then the cameras were there on the day she opened up to show us how many people were waiting and she spoke at a lockdown protest rally in Frisco. All she had to do was contact regular clients and ask if they were interested in an appointment in spite of the Governor's orders. Methinks she had a bigger agenda than her clients' hair.

[Habibi]

8. Ah. Thanks for the additional info.

I have a little less sympathy for her now, for sure.

[Bengus81]

5. So because your Trump SBL hasn't arrived you protest being closed down,tear up a C/D letter.....

and open back up. Her problem is with Trump and they way his SHYSTER banking buddies are handling these loans. KILLING others because of Trump and bankers isn't the answer.

[samnsara]

6. im surprised there were any customers....

[flying_wahini]

9. She is where she belongs. And Judge Clay Jenkins is a good old boy and a Democrat!!!!!!

I fell in LOVE with the Judge as he has been speaking a lot on TV and am
hoping he will run for Gov.

[IronLionZion]

11. If there are 25 million Americans laid off, and each get $1200 a month for 3 months

it would cost $90 billion. Compare that to the trillions spent on bailouts, subsidies, tax cuts, and wars and it doesn't seem that much.

Now it would cost nothing for banks to defer payments on mortgages in a way that adds 3 months to the life of the loan. So that people can just go 3 months without a payment, but still go back to a normal payment after that and the bank still gets the same amount of money over the life of the loan. Most businesses are going under because their landlord is a complete asshole because their mortgage lender is a complete asshole. It doesn't have to be this way.

Americans don't have to lose their livelihoods, businesses, and homes during stay at home lockdown. That is a false choice that certain assholes are forcing on us because they have very different priorities on what to do with tax revenues and rates. They want to claim that lockdown is killing jobs when it's actually failed economic policies.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. What she did was incredibly selfish, despite her playing the ...

"sylists and my kids" card.

Guess what, lady? I am out of work, and just about all of my friends and family are too. But, we are obeying the law and staying at home because we don't want to inadvertently kill people.

She looks like a typical, entitled, North Dallas Shelley. I wonder how much of that business loan that came through will actually be going to her stylists.

[Lobo27]

13. Wanting to work is one thing, but being an idiot is another.

I'm lucky that I have not suffered during this, and that my employer in Dallas has taken care of us. Ownership took paycuts, and kept our pay the same, and in fact increased our bonuses.

Back to this lady, I remember watching the original video she was being bellicose. Almost daring the city to come after her. Thats when she lost me. Because at that point it wasn't about her anymore, and it became a right wing agenda driven move, imo.

[Maxheader]

14. Whining about their constitutional rights..

all the while violating others by putting them in

a potentially dangerous situation....

[rustysgurl]

16. Did a little research on Ms. "feed my children" Luther

In addition to owning the salon (which employs 19 people, some of whom I would think are collecting unemployment, unless she has them work as independent contractors), she apparently has a variety of interests. She also owned (or does own) 5 restaurants with her partner, Tim Georgeff, with whom she is in a musical group called 'CRUSH.' They travel the region performing, and tout themselves as "one of the most exciting acoustic acts in Texas and the surrounding states.” In addition to the children she "needs to feed," she and Georgeff also own six horses, three mini-horses, two donkeys, eleven goats, three ducks, six dogs, a wallaby, a ringtail lemur, and a bengal cat. The media in the DFW area has been digging into her lifestyle and her past, and she certainly isn't living "paycheck to paycheck." In fact, most of this info was gleaned from her Facebook page.

Oh, and a GoFundMe has already raised almost 300k for her.

I lived in the DFW area for 20 years, and I understand the "gotta get my hair did" culture there. But this woman's children aren't "starving" (as she said in court, into her phone, so all her supporters could hear). She is making a statement because she doesn't like being told what to do.

Trust me, they won't be yelling "Remember the Hair Salon" 100 years from now, dear.