The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Washington man with damaging five electric substations and attempting to damage another in the state in 2022, according to an indictment unsealed recently by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
A federal grand jury on April 9 indicted Zachary Rosenthal, a former resident of Tacoma, Wash., with five counts of destruction of an energy facility, one count of attempted destruction and one count of conspiring to damage energy facilities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release. DOJ said Rosenthal was assisted by “others known and unknown” in the attacks.
Rosenthal already had been charged with three counts of damaging an energy facility in Portland, Ore., in November 2022, along with alleged accomplice Nathaniel Adam Cheney of Centralia, Wash. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and the Oregon case is set to go to trial Nov. 3, DOJ’s release said. Rosenthal currently is serving a seven-year sentence in Washington for vehicular assault.
The indictment accused Rosenthal and his co-conspirators of damaging the Toledo, Woodland 1, Woodland 2, Puyallup and Tumwater substations, and attempting to damage the Oakville substation. Attackers used a variety of means to damage the facilities, including firearms, smashing equipment and causing short circuits with heavy chains, DOJ said.
Most of the attacks occurred in November 2022; the Toledo substation attack happened Aug. 5, and the attempt to damage the Oakville substation occurred Dec. 5.
Investigators said the Washington attacks were part of a plan to shut down power to businesses and ATMs in the area to disable alarms and make them easier to rob. Each event, except for the Oakville attack, caused power outages that affected between 1,000 and 6,000 customers, according to DOJ.
Each count of destruction of an energy facility and causing more than $100,000 in damages carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and three years’ supervised release. If the damage is between $5,000 and $100,000, the maximum prison time is five years.
The alleged burglary motive is reminiscent of a similar incident that occurred in Washington in December 2022, when two men caused millions of dollars in damages to four electric substations on Christmas Day, leaving more than 15,000 customers without power. (See Feds Charge Two in Wash. Substation Sabotage.)
The defendants in that case, Matthew Greenwood and Jeremy Crahan, admitted in their plea deals they wanted to cut power to rob ATMs and businesses. Crahan was sentenced to 18 months in prison in December 2023; a month later, Greenwood was sentenced to three years of probation, including one year of home confinement.
Although Greenwood and Crahan’s crimes occurred in the same time frame, with similar goals, and even involved one of the same substations as Rosenthal’s alleged attack — the Puyallup facility — DOJ has not indicated that it suspects a connection between the incidents.
No motive has been suggested for the Oregon incidents, but prosecutor Todd Greenberg told local media that investigators have not found any evidence of ties to extremist groups. Law enforcement officials suggested in 2022 that the attacks, and similar events in the Pacific Northwest around the same time, could be related to “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” seeking to sow chaos by disrupting critical infrastructure.
While some of the Washington and Oregon cases now appear to have no political motivations, multiple plots to damage the electric grid for racial reasons have been uncovered since then. Around the same time Rosenthal allegedly conducted his attacks, neo-Nazi leader Brandon Russell was developing a plot to destroy electric substations in Baltimore in hopes of sparking a civil war. Russell was convicted in February and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. (See Neo-Nazi Convicted in Baltimore Grid Attack Conspiracy.)
