BISMARCK, N.D. – A Denver woman accused of shooting at law enforcement officers during protests in North Dakota against the Dakota Access oil pipeline has been arrested for violating conditions of her pretrial release.
Red Fawn Fallis signed out of a halfway house in Fargo on Thursday morning to attend adult learning classes but never showed up, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. She also allegedly was half an hour late returning to the halfway house.
A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she was taken into custody upon her return to the halfway house Thursday afternoon. Her attorneys declined to comment on the arrest Friday.
Fallis is accused of firing a handgun three times at officers during her October 2016 arrest. No one was hurt.
Her trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 29, but her attorneys said earlier this week that they had reached a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid trial and a potential life sentence. Fallis is due in court Monday in Bismarck to change her plea.
Her arrest Thursday won't affect the hearing, but it could result in her being sent back to jail as the case proceeds.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland agreed in June to allow Fallis to move from jail to the halfway house over the objections of prosecutors. She was moved in October.
U.S. Attorney Chris Myers, whose office is handling the case, declined comment Friday on Fallis' arrest.
Fallis' arrest was among 761 arrests that authorities made between August 2016 and February 2017 during protests in southern North Dakota. At times thousands of pipeline opponents gathered in the region to protest the $3.8 billion project to move North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois.
Opponents fear environmental harm, and four American Indian tribes in the Dakotas are still fighting the project in court. The pipeline's Texas-based developer says it's safe.
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