A 43-year-old rural Comfrey man is facing felony charges for energy or telecom damage or theft of line, insulator, wire, cable, or current of line or cable.
According to the complaint, on Nov. 25, Cottonwood County dispatch received a phone call from South Central Electric reporting that while checking out, they found one of their power poles had been tampered with and that someone had rigged it to get power. The rigged power cord went to a house owned and lived in by Shawn Saudinger.
On April 24, according to the document, power had been cut due to lack of payment. While South Central Electric was inspecting the pole, Saudinger came out of the house and was very agitated to the point where he and his wife told power company workers to get off their property. South Central then called the Cottonwood County Sheriff’s Office to go with them back to the property to get more pictures of the pole.
While en route to that location, the sheriff deputy called an employee of South Central Electric who was at the address. He stated that while in Comfrey at the C-Store, he was told that the defendant was bragging at a party, that he did not need power from South Central as he could just get his own for free.
His work crew then decided to go to the property and check out the power pole, that is when they discovered that it had been tampered with. While taking pictures of the pole, the defendant demanded they get off his property.
A sheriff deputy met with the employee on the gravel road, east of the Staudinger residence as the employee wanted law enforcement to go with him and his crew to get more pictures and to further examine the damaged electric pole.
The report stated that then the defendant’s wife walked to the officers and yelled at them. She admitted that once power was cut, they rigged the pole to get power. The wife then stated that South Central could inspect the pole, but law enforcement was not welcome on their property.
While talking to her, the defendant was in the yard yelling and screaming at law enforcement. The wife then said that she would go back to the house and talk with the defendant, which she did.
It was determined that South Central Electric could not work anything out with the Staudinger residence at that time, and power was then shut off from the main junction and law enforcement left the scene.
The maximum penalty for the felony is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
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