One of the women involved in the vandalism of the Dakota Access pipeline was sentenced today (Fri) to six years in federal prison.
32-year-old Ruby Montoya admitted to cutting holes in the pipeline in several locations, and setting fire to equipment in Mahaska, Boone, and Wapello Counties, from November of 2016 to May of 2017. Montoya is now living in Arizona.
Montoya and Jessica Reznicek vandalized a sign at the Iowa Utilities Board office in 2017, and then both admitting to the pipeline vandalism. They say they were trying to protect water supplies from the pipeline. On Election Night in November of 2016, the two women burned a section of the pipeline and several pieces of heavy machinery at a construction site southwest of Newell.
Montoya was ordered to pay nearly three-point-two million dollars in restitution. Last year, Reznicek was sentenced to serve eight years in federal prison.
