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Who is Eric Moyé, the Dallas judge who jailed salon owner Shelley Luther?

This isn’t the first controversial case for state District Judge Eric Moyé, a Democrat who is reported to have received hateful, racist messages since his ruling.

Those who know state District Judge Eric Moyé say he's a principled judge with a reverence for the law who doesn't shy away from tough cases.

He certainly didn't Tuesday when he ordered Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther to jail after she refused to close up shop in violation of emergency orders enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Moyé, 65, sparked ire from conservatives in Texas and across the country. But colleagues and friends say he was fair, as they’ve always known him to be.

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“I’ve never known the judge to seek the spotlight, but he also leans into doing his job,” said state Rep. Rafael Anchía, who has known Moyé as a colleague and friend for about 20 years. “If that is part of the job, then I think he is happy to defend the rule of law against any criticism.”

Moyé, a Democrat elected to the 14th District Court in 2008, faced widespread backlash after he sentenced Luther on Tuesday to seven days in the Dallas County jail.

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With Dallas officers standing by, Shelley Luther speaks with supporters in the parking lot...
With Dallas officers standing by, Shelley Luther speaks with supporters in the parking lot outside of her business, Salon a la Mode, in Far North Dallas on April 29.(Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer)

Luther, who owns Salon à la Mode in Far North Dallas, was also fined $7,000 for keeping the salon open after Moyé issued a temporary restraining order against the business, which had closed in March following a county stay-at-home order but had then reopened.

Moyé gave her a chance to avoid jail time by apologizing and admitting she had acted selfishly, putting her interests ahead of the community’s. But she refused, saying she needed to support her family.

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The judge’s ruling came as tensions have flared over the reopening of businesses shuttered to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Moyé declined to comment, but in a letter signed by 11 other state district judges, he responded to criticism from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who called Wednesday for Luther’s release from jail.

“For the sake of ALL of the citizens of Texas, please let the Judicial process play out without any further interference,” the judges wrote in their letter to Paxton, calling the attorney general’s comments inappropriate.

This isn’t the first time Moyé, who grew up in New York, has handled a high-profile, controversial case.

The Harvard-educated lawyer was presiding over a contentious lawsuit when Ira Tobolowsky, a prominent Dallas lawyer on the case, was slain. Moyé briefly received police protection after the 2016 slaying, which is still unsolved. He also presided over a politically charged lawsuit in 2018 when the Dallas County Republican Party wanted to kick more than 100 Democratic candidates off ballots.

Anchía said that Moyé, who he said comes from a “working-class” family, has deep empathy for others — especially the underdog.

“I’m sure he was hoping that the owner would have taken responsibility, so that he could have allowed her to avoid jail time and simply pay a fine, but she didn’t want to do it,” Anchía said of the Luther case. “He was trying to apply [the law] fairly and with grace, and she continued to be defiant.”

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Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas and a friend of Moyé’s for 35 years, said the judge is “as principled and courageous of a lawyer as I know.”

“What I love about Eric, he is a unique blend of intellect, compassion, integrity and humor all rolled up into one,” said Kirk, who served as U.S. trade representative during the Obama administration. “He possesses all of the qualities that you would want in your lawyer — and you would certainly want in a judge if you were standing before him seeking justice.”

They met in the late 1970s, Kirk recalled, after Moyé had finished law school at Harvard and returned to Dallas, where he had studied at Southern Methodist University. At the time, there were only a handful of black lawyers practicing civil law in Dallas, Kirk said.

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Kirk said he and Moyé are of a generation that had opportunities their parents were denied, like attending schools that matched their ambitions.

“Our generation, all of us had some sense of responsibility to make sure that the doors that were opened to us because of the hard work of their parents … would stay open for the next generation,” he said. “I’ve got to believe that’s what drives Eric as much as anything. He believes in fair play.”

As for the Luther case, Kirk said he empathized with Luther to an extent. But the struggles wrought by the coronavirus impact everyone, he noted.

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“The smartest thing we can do to get our economy going is to control this damn, horrible disease,” he said. “Beyond that, I think all of us have to understand that everything our elected officials are doing is in the interest of getting us safe and well and getting us back to work as soon as we can.”

The outcome of Tuesday’s hearing could have been different had Luther accepted the judge’s offer to apologize.

Andrés Correa, a Dallas civil lawyer, said Moyé was justified in his ruling because Luther violated a judge’s order. Luther could have argued against the constitutionality of the stay-at-home orders at the May 11 hearing, but instead she chose to stay open, Correa said.

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It’s “the same thing I would tell a client: Comply with a judge’s orders, and let’s change his mind,” Correa said. “Let’s present additional arguments and witnesses, but let’s start by complying with his orders. Otherwise you could end up in jail.”

The punishment could be eased with compliance.

“If you show contrition and you promise that you're going to comply, then you can get out of jail,” Correa said. “It's in your control.”

Jeff Dalton, a political consultant who’s worked with Moyé for over a decade, said that since the judge’s ruling, Moyé has received hateful, racist messages, and his home address and phone numbers were posted online.

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“It’s obviously concerning when complaints about a ruling rise to the level of threats of violence, like, ‘Hang the judge,’ or ‘We’re coming with our guns,’” Dalton said.

Dalton said the response to the ruling was a “coordinated, concerted attack on him by the far right.”

But Dalton said Moyé knows what the courtroom stands for: justice and the law.

“He divorces himself from other considerations when he’s in the courtroom,” he said.

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