(The Center Square) – Lisa Binning is the lucky beneficiary of Gov. Tony Evers’ latest change of heart.
Oshkosh Police arrested Binning on Monday for grooming dogs at her shop, The Dog Depot.
Oshkosh Police said they swooped in on Binning after getting a call, and arrested her after her “refusal to comply.”
“This is the first time that we have had a business owner or citizen who defied the Governor’s order and continued to not comply numerous times,” Oshkosh Police said in a statement.
Binning said she simply was trying to make a living. And she was trying to live within the bounds of Evers’ Safer at Home order.
“I’m not hurting anyone, and I’m keeping people safer than what they would be going into a big store or something like that,” Binning told a Green Bay TV station. “Like I said, we’re staying six feet away from people. We got the gloves. We got the masks. We’re doing the right thing here.”
Oshkosh Police led her away in handcuffs.
The local district attorney, Christian Gossett, said the only reason she is not facing criminal charges is because Evers changed his mind later on Monday.
Evers declared that dog groomers can reopen this week, starting Wednesday.
“Technically she was in violation of the order as it stood, but as this was all unfolding, the governor changed the order and so the Oshkosh Police Department went back and met with her and sorted out a way that she could operate her business in compliance with the governor’s new order,” Gossett said.
Gossett said no one wants to arrest business owners and see them punished.
The public health department in Oshkosh did suspend Binning’s groomers license until Wednesday.
“The Winnebago County Health Department does not condone willful violation of the Governor’s Safer at Home order,” the department said in a statement.
For Binning, Wednesday will be her first day of business-as-it-used to be.
“I didn’t have to pay a bond or anything, they just let me go and I came back to work,” Binning said.
Benjamin Yount reports on Illinois and Wisconsin statewide issues for The Center Square.
