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A district court judge issued a default judgment on Tuesday against The Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro in the civil case filed by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Judge Joseph F. Chase ordered Lisa Hanson’s company, MLH Enterprises LLC, which does business as The Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro, pay $18,000 in civil penalties to the state, along with “reasonable attorneys’ fees and investigation and litigation costs.”

The judgment comes after a lengthy court battle that centered around allegations that Hanson opened her business in December and January in violation of state executive orders banning in-person dining to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In addition to civil lawsuits, Hanson was charged with nine misdemeanor criminal charges tied to the case. Those cases are still ongoing.

Chase said in a memorandum filed this week with the order that he issued the civil judgment in response to the state’s motion for sanctions against Hanson’s corporation after it failed to produce documentation requested by the state as part of the legal discovery process in the case. In that step, each party is allowed to request specific information from the other party.

Court documents said the information was initially requested in April, but after that information was not provided, Chase in a July 15 hearing ordered MLH to do so within 20 days. Hanson did not appear at the hearing and did not file an appearance of counsel.

Some of the information the state requested included names of employees working during the time period in question, sales and profit/loss information and how many people were allowed into its concert in December 2020.

“This litigation arises from and has been characterized by the steadfast refusal of MLH to comply with legal obligations,” Chase wrote. “The failure to obey the court’s order compelling discovery is no isolated event. It is only one example of a purposeful course of conduct flouting the requirements of the law.”

Chase said MLH has also disregarded the court’s orders by not having a licensed attorney on the case. He said the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled the state follows the common law rule that a corporation must be represented by a licensed attorney when appearing in court, regardless of whether the person seeking to represent the corporation is a director, officer or shareholder. That has not happened.

He said Hanson, personally, has tried to explain her noncompliance, stating she has refused and is not obligated to disclose anything to the state.

The state had asked that the corporation be ordered to pay $70,000 — $10,000 per day for each of six violations (Dec. 16-21, 2020), along with a second violation on Dec. 18 when the restaurant opened for a live music performance.

The judge said he took several factors into consideration when determining the size of Hanson’s penalty.

“What MLH did here can be characterized, I think, as civil disobedience,” Chase wrote. “There are circumstances in which non-violent disobedience of an unjust law is not only not ‘bad faith,’ but morally heroic. However, not every instance of civil disobedience is of the same nature as the 1960 sit-in at the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth lunch counter.”

He said Hanson claims to doubt the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic as a public threat, which is a position that is contrary to the guidance given by credible infectious disease experts. He also noted 9,000 Minnesotans have been killed by COVID.

“Such a denial of the reality of the pandemic indicates a stubbornly willful ignorance of the facts, or a bizarre refusal to accept them,” he wrote. “This is not something about which reasonable minds may disagree.”

While he does not doubt Hanson’s actions were based on sincerely held views about the boundaries of personal liberty, they put at risk the safety of the community, he said.

“I find her deliberate, self-publicized, repeated violations of the governor’s orders under these circumstances to be in bad faith,” Chase said.

Chase ultimately issued a $3,000 civil penalty for each date The Interchange was open from Dec. 16 through 21, 2020, for a total of $18,000. This is in addition to the $9,000 penalty Judge Ross Leuning previously ordered when the restaurant was open Jan. 26 to 28.

Attorneys’ fees will be determined at a later time.

In a response to the decision, Hanson issued the following statement:

“In regards to the ruling on the civil case, the judge’s ruling is fraud. He had no jurisdiction. He did not address facts on the record. He denied me due process of law contrary to enacted statute. The court never made a judicial determination on any fact on the record. Furthermore, he refused to let me be heard as a single shareholder of my business while expressly denying the statutory right given to me.”

Hanson is slated for a pretrial hearing on the criminal charges Nov. 24 with the jury trial to follow Dec. 6.

She faces nine misdemeanor counts, including eight counts of violating an emergency powers order and one count of public nuisance.

In previous interviews, Hanson has said the matter is one of Constitutional rights and that she will continue to fight for those rights, not only for herself but for others across the state and nation. She said the enforcement action taken was unlawful.