Shelley Luther, owner of a Salon A La Mode in Dallas, wore a mask while leaving jail less than 48 hours after a judge ordered her locked up for a week for defying public health orders meant to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.
Luther, who refused to apologize or promise to keep her business closed even after a Dallas judge said doing so might keep her out of jail, said she was overwhelmed as she walked toward a crowd chanting her name. In April, Luther tore up a cease-and-desist letter in front of TV cameras at an “Open Texas” rally in the Dallas suburbs.
“I just want to thank all of you who i just barely met, and now you’re all my friends,“ Luther said after leaving jail. “This would have been nothing without you. Thank you so, so much.”
Her release came hours after Abbott rushed to her defense by removing jail as a punishment for defying virus safeguards, thereby removing the toughest enforcement mechanism of his own executive order. The swift relaxing of his own rules reflects the increasing pressure Abbott is under to more quickly reboot the Texas economy, even though he has already allowed restaurants and retailers to start letting customers back inside—a step many other governors have been reluctant to take.
Abbott made the announcement in a statement just before meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the response to the pandemic. That statement also mentioned two women along the Texas border, Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia and Brenda Stephanie Mata, who were similarly jailed for violating his executive orders but whose arrests have not drawn as much attention or inspired protests.
“We should not be taking these people and put them behind bars, these people who have spent their life building up a business,” Abbott told reporters in the Oval Office. When Trump asked if that included the beauty salon owner he had read about, Abbott said she was being released.
“Good,” Trump said.
On Tuesday, Luther refused to apologize for repeatedly flouting the order, leading the judge to find her in contempt of court and sentence her to a week behind bars. Her punishment quickly became a rallying cry for Republican lawmakers and conservative activists, and one online fundraising campaign had raised more than $500,000 for Luther as of Thursday morning.
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday also ordered that Luther be released from jail.
Facing protests and open defiance of his orders, Abbott seems to be moving ahead of his earlier timelines to gradually reopen the Texas economy. On Friday, the state will allow all hair salons to resume business, which comes just a week after Abbott suggested that he was aiming toward mid-May. But some have balked at his gradual pace, including two GOP state lawmakers who let reporters shoot video and photos of them getting haircuts outside of Houston this week.
By Paul J. Weber and Jake Bleiberg
Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
