A California man has pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges of damaging two transformers belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric in December 2022 and January of this year.
He faces a sentence of up to 50 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted, the Justice Department said.
Peter Karasev, a 36-year-old resident of San Jose, was arraigned in the U.S. District Court for Northern California on Nov. 7, according to a press release, after a federal grand jury indicted him Oct. 19 on two counts of damaging energy facilities and one count of using fire and an explosive to commit a felony. Court records show Karasev was remanded to custody following the arraignment. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 30, 2024.
“The FBI is laser-focused on protecting the essential infrastructure that Americans rely on every day, and we and our partners … will use every lawful means to hold anyone who targets that infrastructure accountable,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in the release.
According to the indictment, Karasev carried out his attacks on Dec. 8, 2022, and Jan. 5, 2023, in San Jose. The first incident occurred at a PG&E facility near the Westfield Oakridge shopping center; the second occurred near Santa Teresa High School about three miles away. Both occurred during the early morning hours in commercial areas occupied by stores and businesses, the department said.
Prosecutors said Karasev built, planted and ignited the explosives involved in each of the alleged attacks himself. Along with “experimenting” with explosives, the government said he also was making methamphetamine in his home during the months before the incidents. His alleged actions caused more than 1,500 San Jose homes and businesses to lose power.
San Jose Police Department officers arrested Karasev “on related state charges” in March, the government said, finding in his home multiple homemade explosive devices “in varying stages of completion,” 300 pounds of explosive precursor materials, firearms and other weapons, and “other hazardous substances.” According to media reports, the state charges include interfering with power lines, arson and child endangerment for conducting illegal activities with three children at home. He was transferred to federal custody to face the indictment.
Each count of damaging a power facility carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, while the charge of using fire and explosives carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years to be served consecutively to any imprisonment ordered for the other two charges.
“Damaging our region’s critical infrastructure endangers innocent victims — including our most vulnerable citizens such as the elderly and the sick — and we will not tolerate it,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said. “We will vigorously prosecute any malicious attempts to disrupt the power grid.”
Officials have not indicated what Karasev’s motive for attacking the substations might have been. Recent years have seen an increase in attempts to damage electric facilities, with some successful. The attackers’ reasons vary widely; some allegedly believed interfering with electrical service would serve their political ends, as with the group charged in February 2023 with planning to spark a race war by attacking the electric grid in Baltimore. (See Feds Charge Two in Alleged Conspiracy to Attack BGE Grid.)
Other incidents have more prosaic motivations, as with the rifle attacks on substations in Washington state last Christmas. In May 2023, one of the men charged in those attacks pleaded guilty, claiming he and his accomplice wanted to disrupt power as part of a burglary plot against local businesses and ATMs. (See Wash. Sabotage Suspect Pleads Guilty.)
