BELLMAWR – A local gym that defied pandemic regulations has lost another round in a court fight with the state’s top health official.

An appeals court recently rejected multiple arguments by Atilis Gym, which since May 2020 has battled with Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.

During the dispute, the gym’s operators — Frank Trumbetti and Ian Smith — gave speeches to protesters, appeared on conservative TV outlets and, before a crowd of cheering supporters, kicked in a plywood barrier intended to keep their gym closed.

And both sides went to court so often that the 38-page appellate ruling devoted 20 pages to detailing the fight.

Among other arguments, the gym’s appeal sought to overturn court-ordered sanctions of about $124,000, or some $15,500 for each day of non-compliance with COVID-19 restrictions.

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It contended the sanctions were punitive, but the appellate ruling found they were “a coercive measure grounded in Atilis' ability to pay.”

The decision noted a GoFundMe campaign intended to support the gym’s court fight had raised more than $152,000 by August 2020.

The dispute began just weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy on March 16, 2020, ordered the shutdown of “non-essential” businesses, including Atilis Gym, as a way of curbing the virus' spread.

The gym defied Murphy's order when it re-opened on May 16, later declaring itself an “anti-Murphy autonomous zone.”

A judge ordered a barrier to block access to the business, but Trumbetti and Smith smashed through it on Aug. 1, 2020.

According to the appellate ruling, the gym contended its operations were not "unsafe," challenged the legality of classifying businesses as non-essential, and asserted COVID-19 victims were “not dying as everyone would lead us to believe.”

The three-judge panel upheld several lower-court rulings against the gym, including a refusal to delay the health department’s enforcement proceedings until resolution of criminal charges arising from the dispute.

It rejected Atilis’ claim that it was protected by the First Amendment after becoming an “official location” for U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta in August 2020. The gym at that time said it "had stopped charging membership fees” and that its patrons were “volunteers for the campaign.”

The ruling noted the gym’s social media accounts did not mention the Mehta campaign, but instead showed videos of people working out on its equipment.

And it pointed to Trumbetti’s statement that people entering the business “were given disinfectant spray bottles to use on the gym equipment, further evincing that exercise activities were taking place.”

The decision also said the gym’s “collateral attacks” on the propriety of orders imposed by Murphy and Persichilli “lack substantive merit.”

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.