Texas salon owner jailed for defying governor’s order freed

DALLAS — A Texas salon owner who was jailed for defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s public health orders walked out free to cheering supporters on Thursday, shortly after the governor weakened his mandate following an outcry by conservatives who are escalating calls to lift coronavirus restrictions.

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 flouting public health orders meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Luther, who refused to apologize or promise to keep her business closed even after a Dallas judge said dong 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 defence 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 the $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 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.

Texas has had more than 35,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 970 deaths related to the virus. The number of cases continues to climb in the state, which has averaged more than 1,000 new ones per day in the week since Abbott’s stay-at-home orders ended May 1. But Abbott has said he is focused on hospitalization rates that remain steady and infection rates that have dropped since mid-April.

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Weber reported from Austin.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Paul J. Weber And Jake Bleiberg, The Associated Press