Illinois State Police cite restaurant after it served customers indoors despite ban
The Fainting Goat restaurant in Pocahontas, which has served customers inside this month despite a state-imposed ban on such services, has been cited by the Illinois State Police for an alleged violation of the Illinois Department of Public Health Act.
An attorney for the restaurant’s owners said the citation has “no merit.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have ordered all bars and restaurants in a seven-county area including Bond County to stop serving food inside in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus because the area’s positivity rate for COVID-19 remained above 8%. The region’s positivity rate has been dropping in the past week but remains above 8%. The other metro-east counties in the area, which is officially known as Region 4, are St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington.
Ashley and Ryan Driemeyer, the owners of The Fainting Goat, told the BND in a previous article that they intend to keep their two restaurants in Bond and Clinton County open despite any “mitigation measures” imposed by the state.
As of Sept. 12, the positivity rate in Clinton County was 17.6% and in Bond County it was 11.3%, according to the latest available statistics from the state.
A spokesman for Pritzker could not be reached for comment on Friday about the ticket issued to The Fainting Goat.
The Illinois State Police released a statement that said the agency was asked by the Illinois Department of Public Health for assistance in enforcing the health department emergency rules “because of a consistently high positivity rate in Region 4 and complaints about a small number of businesses violating public health rules.”
“As outlined in the administrative rule, enforcement is an incremental process starting with a notice of non-compliance,” the police agency said. “If businesses continue to not comply, as has been the case in some instances in Region 4, state or local law enforcement can issue the business a misdemeanor citation, similar to enforcing indoor smoking laws. Local state’s attorneys determine how to proceed as they would in any other misdemeanor case. “
Bond County State’s Attorney Dora Mann could not be reached on Friday for comment about the citation.
Tom DeVore, a Bond County attorney who is representing the Driemeyers, said the ticket issued on Thursday to The Fainting Goat in Pocahontas and another one issued to a client in Monroe County should not have been issued based on his interpretation of state law.
The ticket indicates that Section 8.1 was violated.
DeVore argues that according to this section, citations can only be issued “when there is a rule of the department of health that’s being violated or part of the actual health law that has been violated.”
“Indoor dining is not written anywhere in any rule, it’s not written anywhere in the act that is a violation that can be prosecuted through Section 8.1 so these tickets have no legal support,” he said. “Also, to prohibit indoor dining is tantamount to an order of closure of that building premises, making it off limits to the public. Section 2 of the Illinois Department of Public Health Act specifically requires a court order, or the agreement of the owner, to make that happen.
“So these citations that are issued are completely without any support of the law and they have no merit and they shouldn’t have been issued.”
DeVore spelled out other arguments he has against the citation as it relates to Section 8.1 of the Public Health Act. Specifically, he said, citations can only be written if an actual rule issued by the department of health has been violated.
“Indoor dining is not written anywhere in any rule, it’s not written anywhere in the act that is a violation that can be prosecuted through Section 8.1 so these tickets have no legal support,” he said.
Also, DeVore contends that, according to the Public Health Act, prohibiting indoor dining is “tantamount to an order of closure,” which requires a court order or the agreement of the owners.
“So these citations that are issued are completely without any support of the law and they have no merit and they shouldn’t have been issued,” DeVore said.
Indoor dining ban
The new rules for bars and restaurants include:
No indoor service permitted. Takeout and outdoor service is allowed.
No dancing.
Reservations required for each party.
All bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m.
Video gaming permitted to continue.
The first full day for the new rules was Sept. 2.
DeVore also criticized the state for allowing indoor gaming to continue while at the same time prohibiting restaurants from serving those gamblers a sandwich.
The court date for The Fainting Goat is set for Nov. 9 at the Bond County Courthouse in Greenville.
Ashley Driemeyer said she isn’t frightened with the prospects of dealing with the ticket and she said customers have been flocking to her restaurants, which she and her husband intend to keep open.
“We’ve been busy,” she said.
The Driemeyers established The Fainting Goat bar and restaurant at 509 N. Second St. in Breese last year, and earlier this month, just as the latest ban on indoor service was issued, they opened The Fainting Goat - Pocahontas/Interstate 70 in the former Lucky Jacks site at 408 W. Johnson St.
“Mr. Pritzker doesn’t pay my bills,” Ashley Driemeyer told the BND last week. “If he would like to come down here and pay them for me and then shut me down, that would be a different story.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she said. “I just have too much on the line.”
On Facebook, she posted a photo of herself smiling as she holds up her ticket.
“Cheers to my first ticket,” its caption says.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 3:40 PM.
