Lisa Hanson, owner of The Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro in Albert Lea, Minnesota, will spend 90 days in jail and pay a $1,000 for keeping her business open in defiance of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz‘s executive orders, according to the Albert Lea Tribune.
“City Attorney Kelly Martinez had argued Hanson spend 10 days in jail and that the remaining 80 days be stayed, along with a $500,” said the Tribune, but Judge Joseph Bueltel issued the larger sentence and fine to “send a message to the community.”
After the verdict, Bueltel scolded Hanson—who, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has already been fined at least $27,000 in another case brought by Minn. Attorney General Keith Ellison—and accused her of attempting to “roll in the dough” while other Minnesota businesses were forced to shut down.
The judge also compared Hanson, who will almost certainly lose her business, to a “career criminal and drug or alcohol offender,” according to The Minnesota Sun.
He then accused Hanson of acting as a “political protester” who “knowingly and willingly violated the law to make a point.”
After failing to appear for a March 10 bail hearing, the dangerous criminal was put “under surveillance by Freeborn County Sheriff Kurt Freitag” and arrested in April at an Airbnb in Iowa, according to Bring Me The News.
“There’s no reason to put a person like me behind bars,” Hanson told the judge. “Just because I have a passion for liberty and freedom I don’t think that’s any reason to put anyone behind bars.”
The Star Tribune reported that “her restaurant has been closed since February and the city of Albert Lea decided earlier this year not to renew its lease, which will expire at year’s end.”
A GoFundMe has been organized to cover Hanson’s legal fees.
