LANSING, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Feb. 5, 2025) – Nearly four years after making headlines for defying COVID-related health mandates coming from Lansing, a Holland restaurateur’s legal battle to overturn state financial sanctions from that defiance continues.
On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Marlena Pavlos-Hackney of 75 hundred dollars in fines levied by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development over refusing to close her “Marlena’s Bistro & Pizzeria” off of Lincoln Avenue when Governor Whitmer issued an executive order placing restrictions on all in-person dining in March of 2021. Pavlos-Hackney twice defied contempt of court charges when she stayed open despite having her food license suspended by MDARD, and the state Court of Appeals had upheld a lower court ruling that denied her appeal of those charges.
The Marlena’s case, along with a similar defiance of COVID health closures by barber Karl Manke in Owosso, garnered headlines during the outbreak. The legal firm defending Manke at that time, the Kallman Legal Group out of Lansing, was retained by the Ottawa County Board to serve as the county’s legal counsel on January 3, 2023, and continues in that position today.
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