GUILTY AR - Jason Woodring charged in power grid attacks, Aug & Oct 2013

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shadowraiths

shadowraiths

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In the early morning hours of August 21st, the electric power grid was targeted in what appears to have been a deliberate, decidedly low-tech act of terrorism.

The incident was initially described in media reports as something akin to vandalism involving a severed transmission line. It wasn’t vandalism and there was nothing random about it.

On August 23, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for a downed high-tension power transmission line in central Arkansas near the city of Cabot.

As the Cabot community is aware, on Wednesday, August 21, 2013, a high-voltage transmission line in the Holland Bottoms area, on Arkansas Highway 321 near a Union Pacific UNP +0.31% railroad track, was intentionally downed. The FBI . . . investigation has determined that the person(s) responsible attached a cable to the framework of the 100-foot tower and placed the cable across the railroad track in an apparent attempt to utilize a moving train to bring down the tower . . . We believe that someone may have seen a person(s) or vehicle(s) in the area during the early morning hours of August 21, 2013, or may have heard someone removing bolts from the base of the tower, as this act would have created substantial noise.​

The FBI goes on to describe the likely culprit as “familiar with the Holland Bottoms area” and possessing “above-average knowledge or skill in electrical matters.”​

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link
 
AK is Alaska, AR is what you're looking for. Just a heads up.


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some local creep, sorta like a Unibomber type?
 
OkGrace said:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/08/us/arkansas-grid-attacks/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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From this link:

"Arkansas man charged in connection with power grid sabotage"

131008202722-arkansas-grid-attack-story-top.jpg

"Authorities say a tractor was used to cut down two electric poles near Cabot, Arkansas, on October 5"

"CNN) -- A Jacksonville, Arkansas, man has been charged in connection with attacks on the power grid in a rural area of the state, the U.S. Justice Department said Saturday.
Jason Woodring, 37, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with destruction of an energy facility, the Justice Department said.
Woodring is accused of carrying out multiple acts of sabotage, targeting high-voltage power lines and a substation over a period of months, that knocked out power to thousands, the agency said."
 
Federal Grand Jury Returns Eight-Count Indictment Against Jason Woodring

LITTLE ROCK—Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced today that Jason Woodring, age 37, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was indicted today by a federal grand jury on eight counts related to his attacks on the power grid in Central Arkansas. Woodring is currently in federal custody.

Woodring is charged in count one with a terrorist attack against a railroad carrier for his alleged August 21, 2013 sabotage of a high-voltage power line support tower. During the process of dismantling the tower, a power line fell on a nearby railroad track and was later struck by a passing train, severing the power line and causing a brief power outage in Cabot, Arkansas.

In counts two, three, and six of the indictment, Woodring is charged with the destruction of an energy facility. These charges stem from allegations that he attempted to destroy the support tower and the power lines it carried on August 21, 2013; that he set a fire on September 29, 2013, at an Extra High Voltage (EHV) switching station in Scott, Arkansas; and that he cut down two power poles, pulling down one with a stolen tractor on October 6, 2013, and causing a power outage in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

more at link ............ http://www.fbi.gov/littlerock/press...eight-count-indictment-against-jason-woodring
 
From March 2015:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/mar/10/jacksonville-man-pleads-guilty-power-grid-sabotage/

A Jacksonville man has pleaded guilty to attacks on central Arkansas' power grid in 2013, U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer announced in a news release.

Jason Woodring, 38, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to destruction of an energy facility, using fire to commit a felony and being an illegal drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition, the release states.

The United States and Woodring have agreed that he should be sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for the attacks, Thyer said. U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson will determine Woodring's sentence and restitution at a hearing June 18.
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Feature article on the case, if you like a good read:

http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/th...rkansas-power-grid-vandal/Content?oid=3334926

He'd long been fascinated by engineering, but had recently taken a special interest in the mechanics of electricity, and for the better part of a month had been making the trek to a particularly impressive high-voltage transmission tower by a wooded stretch of railroad track outside the Cabot city limits. For a number of reasons, most of which he would keep to himself, it had become apparent to him that the tower would have to come down. The only trouble was how he'd do it.

The enormous metal structure was secured to its concrete base by 125 thick steel bolts, which he began removing, a few per visit, until there were only five left. He then strung a steel cable from 25 feet up the tower to the top of a tree on the other side of the tracks, a tree he scaled by nailing slabs of wood into the trunk to make a ladder... The cable wasn't strong enough; it was snapped by the first passing train. This is how Woodring found himself climbing to the peak of the transmission tower, 100 feet in the air, in the early morning hours of Aug. 21. With a hacksaw, he sawed away at the connectors holding up one of the power lines until he severed them, and the line, still live and carrying 500,000 volts of electricity, fell draped over the track. He dropped the saw, climbed down, got back in his truck and drove home. It was the day before his birthday.

That same morning, a Union Pacific freight train struck the downed power line and burst through it, causing immediate outages in the area and damage that investigators would later estimate at over $100,000. The FBI, speculating that whoever caused the attack must "possess above-average knowledge or skill in electrical matters," offered a $20,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. But no information was forthcoming. And as far as Woodring was concerned, he'd failed: The tower didn't fall.
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