Biography
Jessica Reznicek is an environmental activist who was a leading opponent against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Jessica and other organizers attended public comment hearings, gathered signatures for petition requests for environmental impact statements, and participated in civil disobedience, hunger strikes, marches and rallies, boycotts, and encampments to prevent the construction of the pipeline. In 2017, Jessica and another activist disabled construction machinery in order to delay the pipelines construction. No one was injured by their actions, and the land was protected from the flow of oil for an additional six months. On June 30, 2021, she was sentenced to 8 years in prison. She received the ‘federal crime of terrorism’ enhancement and was ordered to pay over 3 million dollars in restitution and three years of supervised release.
Source verification
The support team's August 11, 2021 press release reports that Reznicek actually self-reported that day to Waseca Federal Correctional Institution to begin her eight-year sentence. This corroborates the recorded August 11 admission, rather than treating the June 30 sentencing or a prospective surrender deadline as the prison admission date. The release contains no actual prison release date.
The October 4 report describes arrest and indictment over Dakota Access Pipeline sabotage following public responsibility claims. One hundred ten years was maximum potential exposure across charges, not an imposed sentence, and the excerpt does not establish a new exact custody period.
The July 14, 2013 Jane Stoever report individually names this person among twenty-four protesters arrested after crossing the property line at the new Kansas City nuclear-weapons-parts plant on July 13. All twenty-four were fingerprinted, photographed and detained at the Jackson County Police Department. The report gives mixed group release dates of July 13 and 14, with some releases expected July 15, but does not assign an individual endpoint to this person. No formal charge, exact jail admission, completed custody duration or later court outcome is inferred. Earlier charges against Carl Kabat for separate actions are not assigned to this event. The Nuclear Resister, July 14, 2013.
The May 2016 Hammering for Peace report identifies District Judge Patricia Lamberti as the judge who sentenced Jessica Reznicek on May 25 following the May 24 misdemeanor criminal-mischief and criminal-trespass convictions for her Northrop Grumman action. The seventy-two-day term was credited as already served, with no additional jail time, alongside just under $5,000 in fines and restitution. This adds the missing judge to the existing case; it does not add another imprisonment or change her recorded custody endpoints or totals. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
Frank Cordaro’s March 2016 release update reports that Sarpy County District Judge Merrit authorized Jessica Reznicek’s March 7 release on a fully refundable $1,000 bond and expedited payment so she would not spend another night in jail. The account identifies the prosecutor at that hearing as Ms. Hunter. This was the pretrial bail decision, distinct from the later May 25 sentencing before Patricia Lamberti already recorded in this case. It establishes no additional imprisonment, new release endpoint or change to the existing custody total. The Nuclear Resister, March 8, 2016 release report.
The contemporary Des Moines report individually identifies Jessica Reznicek among four people arrested during the June 28, 2017 road blockade at the Iowa Air National Guard Drone Command Center. Its update states that all four appeared before a Polk County Jail judge on June 29, pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanors, received fines and were released. The reported one-month maximum was possible exposure, not an imposed prison term. No separate numeric served-day total is supplied. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
In his January 26, 2016 update on her earlier Northrop Grumman case, Frank Cordaro reported that Reznicek told Judge Stefanie Martinez she could not adequately prepare a defense in Sarpy County Jail: she could not obtain her case number, law books or the police report. The hearing was extended to February 2 after a prosecution witness was absent. These are attributed historical pretrial conditions; Martinez’s hearing role is distinct from the later sentencing judge already recorded in that case. Contemporary January 26 update.
