Protester Ordered to Pay Insulation Maker
A Shasta County woman was ordered to pay $42,572 to an insulation manufacturer whose plant she targeted with a protest last year.
Leahla Celeste Draisner, known as “Catwoman” because of her comic cat ears and costumes, staged a one-woman protest on a 199-foot smokestack at an insulation maker in January 2002, authorities said.
Draisner, 29, said she won’t pay the money that a Shasta County Superior Court judge ordered Friday as restitution, because she believes the plant is polluting the air and putting people at risk.
Draisner was convicted of misdemeanor trespassing by a jury and ordered to perform 10 weeks of community service and stay 100 feet away from the plant during her three-year probation.
The protest left dozens of plant employees idle and forced the plant to spend money to restart operations.
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