BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A North Dakota judge on Wednesday accepted a plea agreement that spares former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein any jail time for protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline nearly a year ago.
Judge Gail Hagerty accepted a plea deal in which Stein pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief and prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge.
Stein will be on unsupervised probation for about six months and must pay $250 in fees. She had faced a maximum punishment of two months in jail and $3,000 in fines.
Stein and her attorney did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. Morton County Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Grosinger also did not respond to messages seeking comment on why prosecutors chose not to take the case to trial.
Stein was charged for spray-painting a bulldozer at a construction site last September. She told The Associated Press in March that it was “very problematic to have this hanging over my head” and that she wanted the case resolved. She also said that she was willing to go jail but that’s “not my preference, obviously.”