A Texas mayor has been forced to apologize after getting caught breaking her own stay-at-home order by getting a nail salon to open just for her.
Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames was photographed last Tuesday wearing a face mask as she visited The Nail Bar, which should have been shuttered due to the mayor’s own lockdown order, according to 12NewsNow.
It sparked a flood of complaints, leading to investigations by Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and even Jefferson County District Attorney’s office.
Ames offered a “heartfelt apology” for what she dismissed as a “lapse in judgment.”
“I promise there was no malice intended,” she wrote in a statement.
“I should never have entered the salon last Tuesday. I did not intend to take personal privilege while asking others to sacrifice and for that I am truly remorseful.”
She admitted that “as an elected official I am held to a higher standard.”
“I regret my action that day. I am honestly sorry and I pray that you will forgive me,” she said.
The mayor says she was in and out in 10 minutes, and the owner was the only person in the salon. She insisted that she just needed acetone to remove an old manicure and did not get her nails re-done, according to 12NewsNow.