California trucker faces misdemeanor charge for ‘reckless driving’ during protest

A California truck driver is charged with reckless driving after police say he attempted to make his way through a crowd of protestors at a natural gas storage facility in the Los Angeles area on Monday.

The driver, Trever Ziese, 46, of Ventura, posted $5,000 bond and was released from a jail facility in Van Nuys late Monday night. Eighteen protesters also were arrested after rallying to shut down the Southern California Gas Co. plant in Aliso Canyon. The facility was the site of the largest methane gas leak in U.S. history, blowing out nearly 100,000 tons of gas from October 23, 2015, to February 2016. The gas leak forced thousands of residents in the nearby Porter Ranch community to evacuate their homes.

According to police and media reports, the protest began at around 8 a.m. Los Angeles Police Det. Ross Nemeroff said Ziese, who was not part of the protest, arrived sometime after 11 a.m. with a load of steel pipe to deliver to the facility. Nemeroff said the truck initially tried to make its way into the driveway of the facility, which was blocked by about 50 people, before turning around and driving off. Ziese was subsequently pulled over and arrested.

“There was a lot of activity going on there, and I’m sure tempers were high among everybody there,” Nemeroff said in a phone interview with Land Line on Wednesday.

No one was injured during the protest.