This Johnson County restaurant is defying the mask mandate. Will the DA do anything?

Mexican restaurant Don Chilito’s website tells visitors, “Your safety is our #1 priority.” The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office might beg to differ.

District Attorney Steve Howe says the business at 7017 Johnson Drive in Mission is the only one in the county that has openly defied requirements that employees and customers wear masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Of some 1,400 calls about mask compliance to the D.A.’s consumer fraud hotline (913-715-3003), Howe says Don Chilito’s is alone in forcing his office to consider going to court over the issue.

Indeed, Don Chilito’s second-generation owner Barry Cowden readily acknowledges refusing to abide by the mandate — and says he told the district attorney’s office as much way back in June.

“We are evaluating what to do at this point,” Howe says.

In an interview with The Star Tuesday, Cowden said he’d close the doors on the restaurant his father opened in 1971 rather than adhere to the mask mandate. He says just two of his 20 or so employees and probably half of his customers choose to wear masks.

When Howe decides what to do about the standoff, Cowden says, “At that time, then I will make decisions whether I will wear masks or just go turn the (locks) on my door and add 25 more people to the unemployed payroll and close my business down.”

How is a mask requirement that much different or onerous than requiring shirts and shoes — except that it’s even more important to the public health? Is this really a hill to die on?

“Frankly, probably it is worth dying on that hill at this point in my life,” Cowden says. “They’re eroding our civil liberties day after day, and I think it’s going to get nothing but worse. The mask is just the tip of the iceberg.

“I’m not going to enforce it because I think it’s against my constitutional rights, and it’s an invasion of all of my rights to mandate me to do anything in my business.”

So the only question is, what is there for Howe to evaluate? This has been going on for nearly half a year. It’s time to do something — especially when the restaurant is so brazenly defying the law.

Certainly there are some bureaucratic hurdles to get over. One big one is the fact that in its mask statute, drafted hastily this summer, the Kansas Legislature left it up to district attorneys and county attorneys to figure out how to go about enforcing it in civil court.

“This is unprecedented. There’s no case law,” Howe told The Star. “There’s nothing to assist us to try to put together something. And so we are trying to do some research to determine what is the best course of action and how we would go about it.”

OK, but let’s get on with it, shall we? The virus is spiking like never before.

A second problem with enforcement is the potential fine for violations: a mere $100 per occurrence. That would be laughable if lives weren’t on the line.

And, right on cue:

“A hundred bucks in today’s world is significant,” Cowden notes. “But if that’s what it will take to not wear a mask, I’ll say, ‘Here’s $200 dude. Get off my property.’”

Don Chilito’s the only company not complying

Howe, no doubt reflecting the feelings of many of his constituents, also is hesitant to punish businesses as opposed to trying to convince them it’s in their best interests to enforce mandatory masks.

“We’ve been pretty successful through that education process in getting people to comply. So that’s the route we’ve taken,” Howe said. “We’ve only had one instance where we feel like the company is not complying with the orders, and that’s Don Chilito’s.”

Yes, the vast majority of businesses are complying with the mask mandate. But that’s no reason not to enforce the law where needed.

It’s time to go to court. Even a pathetically anemic fine from an irresolute legislature would at least send a message — not just to one business, but to every other: Exposing customers to potential COVID-19 infection will, itself, be exposed.

Cowden is undaunted even by that prospect. He says some customers want to hug him for not enforcing the mask mandate, some of them returning multiple times a week to dine mask-free. As for those who wisely won’t risk it?

“I’m like, ‘That’s your right. There’s the door. There’s three other Mexican restaurants you passed, I’m sure, to get here. I appreciate you, but maybe you’ll come back when fear doesn’t rule your life.’”

For that matter, Howe agrees the ball is largely in the public’s court.

“At some point in time you’ve got to decide, do you want to go eat there?” Howe says. “And that’s what it comes down to. I think people for the most part want to know that it’s a safe and healthy place that they could go eat. I think that’s important to people right now.”

The problem is, maskless gatherings imperil us all. That’s why in the vast majority of restaurants and other businesses, employees and customers are correctly being required to wear masks.

It needs to be all of them.