Trial begins for North Dakota’s effort to recoup costs of policing Dakota Access pipeline protests

By JACK DURA
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A trial began Thursday in North Dakota’s nearly five-year-old lawsuit seeking $38 million from the federal government for policing protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. The state filed the lawsuit in 2019, followed by years of legal wrangling before a judge set the trial date in December. The lawsuit relates to the state and local law enforcement response to the sometimes-chaotic protests that largely occurred from about August 2016 to February 2017. The oil pipeline’s controversial Missouri River crossing upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation drew thousands of protesters who camped and demonstrated nearby. The pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017.