Health code fight is tempest in a tearoom
COSTA MESA, Calif. – A fight over what constitutes government oppression and religious freedom is brewing in a cozy tearoom and cinnamon-scented quilt-and-craft shop operated in violation of local health codes.
Three members of the small Piecemakers religious sect were convicted this week of multiple misdemeanor counts for refusing to let health inspectors into their kitchen.
The group, led by an 85-year-old, camouflage-clad grandmother, has battled the county for years over a laundry list of code violations, claiming the law of God is greater than the law of man.
“God’s laws help the people, they comfort the people. These laws bind you so that you can’t breathe. They have sucked the substance right out of our country,” said Marie Kolasinski, the Piecemakers matriarch.
Kolasinski and the two other defendants each face up to a year in jail when they are sentenced Jan. 12. They said they will appeal based on how officials handled the case.
“Put me in jail, shoot me, do anything. But I’m going to keep fighting this kind of thing until America wakes up,” said Kolasinski, who compares her actions to the civil disobedience of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Since the early 1990s, the Piecemakers have resisted health inspectors who accuse them of selling unpackaged foods like homemade sandwiches and soup without a permit.
The Piecemakers were ordered to cease all food sales and placed on probation in 2000, but undercover inspectors have observed continuing violations, according to trial testimony.
Last October, inspectors arrived unannounced with a court order, prompting a rowdy confrontation recorded by the Piecemakers. Kolasinski and two others were arrested after wrestling with police officers and unleashing a barrage of profanity, prompting one officer to ask Kolasinski: “Do you kiss your kids with that mouth?”
Health workers testified it was the first time they had to obtain a court order for a routine inspection of restaurants in Orange County.
Deputy District Attorney Scott Steiner, who prosecuted the case, doesn’t believe the Piecemakers were resisting because of their religious beliefs.
“I think the primary reason for their recalcitrance is due to the almighty dollar, much more than the Almighty,” Steiner said.
Steiner said he hasn’t yet ruled out shutting down the tearoom in light of the convictions.
Kolasinski founded the Piecemakers in 1978, when she says God spoke to her – in English, not Hebrew as she expected. The sect, which she describes as “born-again Christians who have finished their walk to the full Gospel,” has 26 members who share four houses.