Reznicek & Montoya
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</b></div><div><b>Iowa climate activist sentenced to eight years in federal prison for Dakota Access pipeline sabotage</b></div><div>Philip Joens</div><div>Des Moines Register</div><div>
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</div><div>One of two central Iowa women responsible for <b>millions of dollars in damage to the Dakota Access pipeline</b> was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to eight years in prison. </div><div>
</div><div>Climate activists Jessica Reznicek, 39, and Ruby Montoya, 31, were indicted on nine federal charges each in September 2019, including charges for damaging an energy facility, <b>use of fire in the commission of a felony, and malicious use of fire.</b> Reznicek and Montoya both pleaded guilty to a single count of damaging an energy facility. The remaining charges were dismissed. </div><div>
</div><div><b>In July 2017 the women claimed credit for a series of acts of sabotage, including burning pipeline construction equipment at a Buena Vista County worksite</b> in November 2016 and <b>using oxyacetylene cutting torches or gasoline-soaked rags to damage other pipeline sites</b> around the state between March and May 2017. At the time of their admission, they were affiliated with the Des Moines Catholic Workers' social justice movement. </div><div>
</div><div>Why Jessica Reznicek says she damaged the DAPL</div><div>In court Wednesday, Reznicek said she committed the acts against the pipeline because she was concerned it would spill and further contaminate drinking water in Iowa.</div><div>
</div><div>Ruby Montoya, left, and Jessica Reznicek.]</div><div>"The toxins we enter into our waterways here in Iowa enter into the Mississippi (River) which enters into the Gulf (of Mexico)," Reznicek said during sentencing Wednesday. "Going to this extreme was out of character for me." </div><div>
</div><div><b>Montoya will be sentenced July 30. </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Des Moines <b>Catholic Worker</b> community was founded in 1976 in response to the Gospel call for compassionate action like that characterized by the Sermon on the Mount. Catholic Workers are not all Catholics and they are not controlled by the bishop of the Des Moines Roman Catholic Diocese. The Catholic Workers also have no financial ties to the diocese.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In public comments after they damaged the pipeline, which runs from North Dakota to Illinois and began operations in June 2017, Reznicek and Montoya bragged that they got away with it and claimed other people could too, said federal prosecutor Jason Griess.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But in recent years Reznicek said she shied away from the spotlight and gave up her bombastic public persona and advocacy.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Learning there was a different type of service without activism was life-changing for me,"</span> Reznicek said. </div><div>
</div><div>More: DAPL protestors to plead guilty to multimillion dollar sabotage]</div><div>
</div><div>Sentencing in the Dakota Access pipeline sabotage case</div><div>
</div><div><b>Sentencing guidelines recommended up to 20 years in prison due to Reznicek's criminal history, which included convictions for things like trespassing during her activism. </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger also concluded that a terrorism sentencing enhancement could apply because Reznicek tried to stop the flow of oil,<b> retaliated for decisions by state and federal governments to approve the project and wanted to prevent the government from approving future projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline. </b></span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>"Not only the flow of oil, but the government's continued response were targets of this action,</b>" Goodgame Ebinger said. </div><div>
</div><div>Griess, the prosecutor, argued Reznicek and Montoya put the lives of firefighters and other first responders at risk when they used blow torches to cut into the pipeline without knowing what was inside.<b> In all they set 11 fires, </b>Griess said. Construction workers were also placed at risk when they did not know what they would encounter at work, Griess said. </div><div>
</div><div>"It is very difficult to downplay," Griess said. "This is incredibly dangerous conduct." </div><div>
</div><div>The sentence needed to be harsh to deter others from acting out like Reznicek and Montoya did, Goodgame Ebinger said. But the judge also took pity on Reznicek. The terrorism adjustment made the sentencing guidelines far higher than if that and her criminal history had not been considered, Goodgame Ebinger said. </div><div>
</div><div><b>The judge also said that the work Reznicek was doing now with the Catholic Workers — Reznicek's lawyer, Melanie Keiper, said her client's efforts recently were to feed the homeless — was admirable. She also described Reznicek's environmental concerns as, "Laudable though misguided."</b> </div><div>
</div><div>Philip Joens covers breaking news for The Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens. </div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div>=</div><div>intercept infiltrtor joel m:</div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the things Joel wanted to talk about most was Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek. The reports of pipeline valves being pierced had surfaced soon after the women went quiet on social media, and Joel was worried that the duo could be behind it. Smith had wondered too.</span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Reznicek had a reputation for being what Smith called “committed.” She was willing to do lockdowns. She had conducted an anti-DAPL hunger strike. But Montoya’s tactics seemed more measured.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Joel “was very, very concerned that Ruby had gotten in over her head,” Smith said. “He wouldn’t leave it alone. It was, ‘Who do you know that I can talk to that would know where Ruby is?’”</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Smith wrote it off. “I thought he had an infatuation with her,” Smith said. “Ruby has that effect on people. She’s really personable; she’s easy to like.”</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[ruby-1545076473jessica-1545076470</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Ruby Montoya, left, and Jessica Reznicek at the entrance to the drilling site where the pipeline goes under the Mississippi at Sandusky, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 2016.Photos: Courtesy of Joshua Smith]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Joel kept at it even after parting ways with Smith, texting again two days after the march when another report emerged of a valve being sabotaged.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">By then, Smith was tired of the conversation. Whatever Montoya was up to, Smith wanted nothing to do with it. “It’s possible,” he told Joel in a text, “but from my vantage point I don’t know them well enough.”</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In the months that followed, as The Intercept published a series of articles based on TigerSwan’s situation reports, rumors started circulating about the identities of the infiltrators who had gathered the intelligence. Seeing reference after reference to Food and Water Watch’s planning meetings, Fujan became more convinced than ever that the sock puppet Facebook account was telling the truth about Joel, and she was pissed.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In June 2017, she sent a letter to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. “Given your role in ‘protecting the public interest of the state and its people,’” she wrote, “we believe that you should launch an investigation into TigerSwan’s activities in the state.” According to Fujan, Madigan declined. Madigan’s office did not respond to a request for comment.</span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[Jessica Fujan chants on the Wacker Drive during a "100 Days of Failure" protest and march, Saturday, April 29, 2016, in Chicago. Thousands of people across the U.S. are marking President Donald Trump's hundredth day in office by marching in protest of his environmental policies. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Jessica Fujan chants through a bullhorn at the Chicago climate march on April 29, 2017. Photo: Nam Y. Huh/AP]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To Fujan, the infiltration represented the lengths to which the oil and gas industry would go to protect its profits. In an era in which a growing body of scientific evidence prescribes a dramatic reduction in the burning of fossil fuels to stave off a nightmare climate scenario,<b> the government’s unwillingness to protect her environmental nonprofit from subterfuge by a $4 billion corporation</b> laid bare the soaring advantage the industry held against citizens fighting for a livable future.</span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“When you do this work, you see that the power of the oil and gas industry and monied industries like this is unconquerable,” Fujan said. “They could sue our organization out of existence. They could sue me personally into dire financial straits, and it’s unreasonable to me that we should be incurring that kind of risk for truth-telling.”</b></span></div></div><div>
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</div><div><a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/07/24/dakota-access-protesters-claim-responsibility-pipeline-sabotage/504136001/">https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/07/24/dakota-access-protesters-claim-responsibility-pipeline-sabotage/504136001/</a>
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</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix vid</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dakota Access protesters claim responsibility for pipeline sabotage</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Petroski, bpetrosk@dmreg.com Published 11:04 a.m. CT July 24, 2017 | Updated 8:56 p.m. CT July 24, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Reznicek (purple shirt) and Ruby Montoya (blue shirt) claim responsibility for Dakota Access equipment vandalism on July 24, 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">170724_02_iubprotest_bp.jpgBuy Photo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two Iowa activists with a history of arrests for political dissent are claiming responsibility for repeatedly damaging the Dakota Access Pipeline while the four-state, $3.8 billion project was under construction in Iowa.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jessica Reznicek, 35, and Ruby Montoya, 27, both of Des Moines, held a news conference Monday outside the Iowa Utilities Board’s offices where they provided a detailed description of their deliberate efforts to stop the pipeline's completion. They were taken into custody by state troopers immediately afterward when they abruptly began using a crowbar and a hammer to damage a sign on state property.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both women are involved in Iowa’s <b>Catholic Worker social justice movement </b>and they described their pipeline sabotage as a "direct action" campaign that began on Election Day 2016. They said their first incident of destruction involved burning at least five pieces of heavy equipment on the pipeline route in northwest Iowa's Buena Vista County. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The Dakota Access Pipeline is an issue that affects this entire nation and the people that are subject to its rule," Reznicek said. "With DAPL, we have seen incredible issues regarding the rule of law, indigenous sovereignty, land seizures, state-sanctioned brutality, as well as corporate protections and pardons for their wrongdoings. To all those that continue to be subjected to the government's injustices, we humbly stand with you, and we ask now that you stand with us."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The two women said they researched how to pierce the steel pipe used for the pipeline and in March they began using oxyacetylene cutting torches to damage exposed, empty pipeline valves. They said they started deliberately vandalizing the pipeline in southeast Iowa's Mahaska County, delaying completion for weeks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Reznicek</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Reznicek (Photo: Special to the Register)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Reznicek and Montoya said they subsequently used torches to cause damage up and down the pipeline throughout Iowa and into part of South Dakota, moving from valve to valve until running out of supplies. They said their actions were rarely reported in the media. They also contended the federal government and Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline developer, withheld vital information from the public.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The two women said they later returned to arson as a tactic, using tires and gasoline soaked rags to burn multiple valve sites and electric units, as well as heavy equipment located on pipeline easements throughout Iowa. <b>They said they attempted again in May to pierce a valve in southeast Iowa's Wapello County with a cutting torch. But they were disappointed to learn oil was already in the pipe.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ruby Montoya</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ruby Montoya (Photo: Special to the Register)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Montoya's comments to reporters, she criticized decisions by the courts and public officials that allowed the pipeline project to proceed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Our conclusion is that the<b> system is broken and it is up to us as individuals to take peaceful action and remedy it, </b>and this we did, out of necessity," Montoya said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Reznicek and Montoya were transported Monday by law enforcement officers to the Polk County Jail, where they were booked on charges of <b>fourth-degree criminal mischief for damaging metal letters on the sign outside the Iowa Utilities Board building</b>. They were each <b>held on $1,000 bond.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ronald Humphrey, a special agent in charge of the arson and explosives bureau of the State Fire Marshal's Office, said there is an active, open investigation into arson and damage to the pipeline and construction equipment. Details about the investigation are confidential because it is an ongoing investigation, he added. Meanwhile, an FBI spokesman in Omaha declined to comment and representatives of Energy Transfer Partners didn't respond to a request for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Dakota Access Pipeline, which became operational June 1, <b>transports crude oil from the Bakken/Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to a distribution hub near Patoka, Ill. It has the capacity to ship about 520,000 barrels of oil daily. </b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Look at some numbers associated with the Bakken Pipeline, (Dakota Access Crude Pipeline) Rodney White/The Register</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The pipeline has encountered strong opposition in Iowa, particularly from environmental activists. The project, which cuts diagonally through 18 Iowa counties, has also been fought by farmers who have criticized the use of eminent domain to obtain access to their land for the pipeline. Litigation involving the pipeline is still pending in federal court and before the<b> Iowa Supreme Court.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Veteran activist Frank Cordaro of Des Moines, a former Catholic priest who has long been involved in the Catholic Worker movement, cheered Reznicek and Montoya as they were taken into custody Monday morning. He shouted, "Thank you for your witness. Thank you for your courage."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cordaro characterized the actions of the two women as consistent with an American tradition of civil disobedience in the face of wrongdoing and injustice. He said the two women felt an obligation to take personal responsibility to stop the crude oil pipeline project in an effort to prevent environmental damage to soil and water and the eventual destruction of the planet through climate change caused by the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leaders of anti-pipeline organizations had mixed reactions Monday to the women's arrests and claims of responsiblity for the sabotage.</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sierra Club of Iowa lawyer</b> Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids deplored the women's actions. "Certainly, we had absolutely no knowledge about what these women were doing or were going to do, and we condemn any kind of damage or anything like that," he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ed Fallon of Des Moines, a former state legislator who helped lead Iowa anti-pipeline protests, said he admired the courage and passion of Reznicek and Montoya.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think what this does is generate a pretty hearty discussion about violent vs. non-violent action, about effectiveness versus ineffective actions," Fallon said. "I think that is a conversation that we all need to continue. It is not a strategy that I have historically approved or of embraced. But I am willing to keep an open mind on where other people stand on it."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A representative of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement had no comment, while a spokesman for the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition said the organization was surprised by Reznichek and Montoya's claims of responsibility and had no involvement in their actions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Craig Stevens, </b>a spokesman for the <b>Grow America's Infrastructure Now Coalition</b>, a pro-pipeline group which includes business and labor interests, called the two women's statements a "stunning admission of guilt."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Despite their repeated claims, in no way are the use of gasoline, motor oil, fire and welding torches to destroy construction equipment or pierce pipelines acts of 'peaceful' protest," Stevens said. "These are violent criminals hiding beneath the veneer of young women. They are lucky they were not seriously injured or killed."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stevens also said his organization believes improving the nation’s energy infrastructure is critical to ensuring that people have necessary energy. "One has to wonder what magic juice gets these violent criminals from protest site to protest site and also provides the feedstock to the thousands of everyday products they, their families and all Americans use," he added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reznicek and Montoya are active in the Des Moines Catholic Worker community, which was founded in 1976 in response to the Gospel call for compassionate action as summarized by the Sermon on the Mount. However, the Catholic Workers are not all Catholics and they are not controlled by the bishop of the Des Moines Roman Catholic Diocese. The Catholic Workers also have no financial ties to the diocese.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Catholic Worker community has four houses in Des Moines </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">that focus on a nonviolent lifestyle while serving the poor. </span>Some members of the community have been critical of the Des Moines Roman Catholic Diocese and have <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">called for changes that include ordination of women as Catholic priests and stances against corporate agriculture and the military-industrial complex.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the incidents described by the two women appears to match a law enforcement report in March involving an incident in Oskaloosa in southeast Iowa. The Mahaska County sheriff’s office said someone used a blowtorch to damage an above-ground safety valve surrounded by a security fence. There was no oil in the pipeline, although authorities said it was pressurized with nitrogen gas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A suspect burned a hole through the Dakota Access Pipeline</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A suspect burned a hole through the Dakota Access Pipeline in Mahaska County, according to the sheriff's office. (Photo: Special to the Register)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, both women have reportedly denied involvement in several suspected arson incidents last year along the Dakota Access Pipeline construction project that have never been solved by authorities.</b> These included fires in July 2016 involving heavy equipment such as bulldozer and backhoes in Jasper and Mahaska counties that caused nearly $1 million in damage near Newton, Reasonor and Oskaloosa. In October, an intentionally-set fire caused about $2 million in damage to construction equipment near Reasnor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Reznicek, a Des Moines native, and Montoya, who previously lived in Phoenix, Ariz., are experienced political activists. Reznizek became involved in political movements about six years ago with<b> Occupy Wall Street protests.</b></span><b> </b>Montoya came to Iowa last year after becoming involved in pipeline protests at the <b>Standing Rock</b> reservation in North Dakota. Both were involved in the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Mississippi Stand" protest against the pipeline along the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Reznicek was among four people arrested in 2015 in Bellevue, Neb., for breaking windows at Northrop Grumman, </b>which is a defense contractor for the U.S. Air Force. She was also engaged in a<b> hunger strike</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">outside the Iowa Utilities Board’s office in November, demanding the board take action to stop the pipeline project.</span> She was subsequently arrested for trespassing after she refused police orders to leave the building. Reznicek and Montoya were also among 12 people arrested in January in Memphis, Tenn., during a protest at a <b>Valero oil refinery </b>while protesting th<b>e $900 million Diamond Pipeline project.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Protesters gather at the Iowa Air National Guard Base in Des Moines, Iowa on Satuday, March 15, 2014, to demonstrate their opposition to U.S. Military use of Unmannned Aerial Vehicles. Charlie Litchfield/The Register</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Reznicek and Montoya among four people arrested in June who blocked access to the Iowa Air National Guard Base at the Des Moines airport to protest the base's operation of <b>military drones overseas.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>All four were ordered last week to pay restitution jointly for more than $3,200 to cover the costs of police, firefighters and other city employees who were called to the protest, which blocked McKinley Avenue for more than two hours.</b></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a statement emailed to The Register on Saturday, <b>Montoya said both she and Reznicek deny responsibility for the restitution</b>, alleging they were mistreated by firefighters and police. Des Moines police and fire officials said they followed standard operating procedures and there was nothing improper about the way the protesters were treated.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reporters Charly Haley and Grant Rodgers contributed to this story.</font></div></div></div>