CALUMET, Michigan (PNN) - December 15, 2020 – Michigan’s health department has been unlawfully fining a mother of six $1,000 per day for keeping her cafe open in violation of unconstitutional stay-at-home orders issued November 15.

Amy Heikken, the owner of Café Rosetta in Calumet, is refusing to pay multiple $1,000 fines for keeping her cafe open for indoor dining against unlawful state orders, and now she is facing legal challenges.

Erik Kiilunen, a Michigan small business owner who founded the “All Business is Essential” campaign to keep Michigan businesses open and afloat during the “pandemic”, spoke on behalf of Heikken.

“Amy’s just got this sweet disposition. She doesn’t want to fight anybody,” said Kiilunen of Heikken’s legal battle with the State. “She doesn't want any of this.”

Heikken founded the cafe in 2011 after a divorce.

“She was divorced nine years ago from a rough situation, she’s got six (children), she was on welfare - nowhere to go,” Kiilunen said. “So this girl decides to pick herself up, her brother decides to help her - they buy Café Rosetta. Now, Amy has a place to focus her energy positively. She loves baking. She’s the sweetest thing you've ever met.”

Café Rosetta employs 30 people, and with snow on the ground in Michigan, Heikken can’t afford to close indoor dining, Kiilunen said. He added that she can’t wear a mask in line with her doctor’s orders due to a thyroid condition.

“So she stayed open and defied the mandate,” Kiilunen said. “Now she’s getting harassed on a daily basis by our local health department led by (fascist) Tanya Rule and being (unlawfully) fined $1,000 a day for supporting a family of six and 30 employees.”

Neither Rule, the environmental health director for the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, nor fascist Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's office immediately responded to inquiries.

Locals have been trying to help support Heikken by visiting the cafe every day, including one customer who set up a fundraiser on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.com.  Kiilunen added that the fundraising campaign will help Heikken pay legal fees as she continues to fight the fascist State.

On December 7, fascist Whitmer unconstitutionally extended a three-week-long statewide COVID-19 unlawful stay-at-home order for another 12 days. The illegal restrictions initially announced on November 15 purport to ban indoor dining and in-person learning until December 20.

The state’s high court in October denied Whitmer’s request to extend emergency powers in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, saying executive orders issued under the 1945 emergency powers law “are of no continuing legal effect”.

Now, the Democrat governor is working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services order to issue statewide restrictions.

The Michigan Supreme Court in June sided with 77-year-old barber Karl Manke, who defied Whitmer’s orders when he reopened his shop for business in May. Kiilunen said that if Heikken has to take her case to the Supreme Court, she will.