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Albert Lea restaurant owner found guilty of violating state COVID mandate
Star Tribune (Minn.) ^ | DECEMBER 9, 2021
Posted on 12/11/2021, 4:15:34 PM by Mount Athos
The owner of a wine and beer bar who openly flouted Gov. Tim Walz's executive orders to shut down last winter during the COVID-19 pandemic was found guilty of six criminal misdemeanor counts Thursday by a Freeborn County jury.
A jury of three women and three men took only an hour of deliberation to convict Lisa Hanson, the 57-year-old bar owner, after a three-day trial punctuated by Hanson's repeated attempts to argue that Walz's orders were unconstitutional.
Judge Joseph Bueltel followed the reading of the verdict with a scathing denunciation of Hanson's behavior, explaining why the governor's orders were legal. "You wanted to make money over the interest of public safety," he said. "You don't recognize the law. You don't think you're subject to the law."
He then sentenced her to 90 days in jail, which began immediately, and a $1,000 fine, considerably more than what Albert Lea City Attorney Kelly Dawn Martinez, who prosecuted the case, had sought.
Asked to comment on the verdict, Hanson raised her fist and shouted, "Liberty and freedom!" as she was led away by sheriff's deputies.
After a warrant was issued for her arrest, Hanson went into hiding. She was arrested several weeks later in Iowa, where she was staying at a motel.
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. In the meantime, she was fined $9,000 in a case brought by Attorney General Keith Ellison and fined another $18,000 in November in connection with the case.
In her closing argument, Hanson said she had a duty to challenge "the abusive exercise of government authority" and "the overreach of an overzealous government."
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