A Centralia, Washington man is headed to federal prison after a late-2022 attack on a Clackamas County power substation that cut electricity to thousands of customers and racked up tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. The November 28, 2022 break-in at the Sunnyside substation was later traced back to the defendant by federal investigators.
Judge: Damage Went Beyond Ordinary Vandalism
U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai on Wednesday sentenced the man to 18 months in federal prison, saying the crime may "look like it’s just vandalism or property damage," according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. It was not treated in court like a teenage prank gone sideways.
Assistant federal public defender Robert Hamilton had pushed for a shorter term, urging the court to factor in that his client "has been in custody for nearly 18 months and is ready to get back to the community," the outlet reports.
What Prosecutors Say Happened at Sunnyside
According to court filings and a federal press release, Cheney and at least one accomplice slipped into the fenced Sunnyside facility and deliberately damaged control equipment that operators rely on to run the substation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon said the tampering caused about $26,000 in damage and knocked critical control systems offline, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
How Investigators Linked Cheney To The Break-In
Prosecutors said they tied Cheney to the sabotage through cellphone geolocation data detailed in court filings, and he was arrested in April 2024 in Washington. Cheney later pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of damaging an energy facility, per The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Co-Defendant And A Wider Pattern Of Attacks
Charging documents also name a co-defendant who has pleaded not guilty to related counts, coverage by The Associated Press notes. Regional reporting has placed the Oregon case within a broader string of late-2022 substation attacks across the Pacific Northwest and beyond, which investigators say evolved from straightforward copper thefts into deliberate attempts to disable equipment, according to OPB.
Penalties, Restitution And Who Investigated
Damaging an energy facility that causes more than $5,000 in losses carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison. As part of his plea agreement, Cheney agreed to pay restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The investigation was led by the FBI with help from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Parakram Singh and Geoffrey Barrow, according to the Justice Department press release.
