Kimberly Waigand told a judge Thursday that she would “never” require masks in her Brentwood restaurant.

Waigand, who owns the Crack’d Egg on Brownsville Road, reiterated that answer twice to Common Pleas Judge John McVay during a hearing over the county’s shutdown of her restaurant for failing to follow covid-19 mitigation orders. She testified that she believes she would lose her business if she followed state requirements to operate at a reduced capacity and have customers and employees wear face coverings.

More than that, she told the judge, her decision to thumb her nose at Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders is about “freedom.”

“We’re just a mom-and-pop diner living the American Dream,” she said. “We have our freedoms and liberties, and when are we going to get it back?

“They asked us to be closed for two weeks. We’re 10 months in, Judge. When is it going to stop?”

The Allegheny County Health Department filed an enforcement action against the Crack’d Egg in September for continuing to operate despite a closure order issued a month earlier.

A hearing on the matter began on Wednesday and is expected to conclude Friday with testimony from expert witnesses called by the Crack’d Egg’s attorneys.

Earlier, the county called both the county health department’s director and chief epidemiologist to testify.

Waigand has argued that the governor had no authority to issue covid-19 mitigation mandates for social distancing and masking, and that she, therefore, need not follow them.

The health department position is that Waigand is required to follow the mandates to continue to have a valid health permit for operating.

When the pandemic began, Waigand said she followed orders to stop in-person dining. But when health department officials told her over the summer that she should refuse to serve patrons without masks, she said she would not.

“I said ‘absolutely not.’ I would not violate anyone’s rights,” she said.

Waigand said she made disposable masks available to her employees and customers if they wanted them.

“They’re there. If you choose to wear them, that’s fine,” she said. “It doesn’t matter to me — you know — if you come in with a mask or not.”

Waigand said that none of her employees have tested positive for covid-19, and that she is unaware of any cases tracing back to the restaurant, which she opened in October 2015.

Early in her testimony, Waigand became emotional as she talked about the beginning of the pandemic and the shutdown orders.

“That day I was sad,” she said. “I just knew in my heart it wasn’t going to be two weeks.

“I knew it would be longer than that.”

Waigand told the court she didn’t see her grandchildren for two months.

“We did everything right because we didn’t at first know what it was,” she said.

The Crack’d Egg closed for two days and then reopened for takeout-only service. The closure hit her business hard, Waigand said, causing it to go from $50,000 in monthly income to less than $14,000, and to drop from 15 employees to six. She said she stopped taking a salary.

The restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.

When the state gave the green light for in-person dining again, Waigand said she followed strict sanitization rules.

Tables were distanced and frequently cleaned. All items were removed from the tables. They used disposables and paper products.

They were initially seating only eight of 28 tables inside and had 11 outside, Waigand said.

At one point, she testified that the health department told her that the kitchen staff needed to wear masks, as well as servers and customers.

“I said, ‘There’s no way the back of the house will wear masks,’ ” she said. “We’ll die back there.”

Waigand said the inspector told her the staff did not need masks if they remained adequately distanced.

Her attorney, Sy Lampl, asked, “If you were to force clients to wear masks, do you think that would affect patronage?”

“I’m sure it would,” she answered.

She also said that when servers choose to wear masks, “they’re fussing with it, putting it up and down.

“To me, that’s the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their mouth.”

Waigand told the court, “I’m never going to require masks.”

Near the end of Waigand’s testimony, McVay asked her to clarify that answer.

“You just said ‘I’m never going to require masks.’ Is that correct?”

“Yes,” she answered.

Then, he asked if she would be willing to sit down with the health department to attempt to compromise in some way.

“No,” she answered.

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