How did I miss this?

OR: "Think of it as evolution in action."

OR: I wish they were all this dumb.

Man accused of cutting power line pleads not guilty
Last updated April 29, 2008 11:43 p.m. By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

An Orcas Island man who allegedly cut a high-voltage power line with a pole saw and lost his left arm in the process faces 20 years in federal prison if found guilty of attempting to destroy an energy facility.

A lineman hearing calls for help found Gabriel Mondragon, 26, inside a fenced Orcas Power and Light Cooperative substation March 15 with electrical burns on his arms and legs.

Mondragon, his pants burned off by the high voltage that coursed through his body, told sheriff's deputies that his action was "to protest the death of a whale named Luna and the depletion of the rain forests," FBI Special Agent James Powers wrote in the criminal complaint.

Luna was an orphaned orca living in Nootka Sound off Vancouver Island that gained notoriety because of extensive attempts to reunite him with his pod. The whale was killed in 2006 by a tugboat propeller.

Mondragon -- who said he blamed "rich white people" and took the action to get them to pay attention -- knocked out power to about 4,000 customers on Orcas and Shaw islands shortly after 10 p.m. March 15. The outage lasted about 75 minutes, according to the complaint.

He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center immediately after the incident and was not released until Tuesday, when he appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge in Seattle to face the felony charge.
Mondragon, his hair in dreadlocks and the stump of his left arm wrapped in a bandage, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charge and was released pending further court appearances.

That was from the Post-Intelligencer.
I like this one, from the Island Guardian, better:

Gabriel Thomas Mondragon, 29 years old, who recently arrived from New Mexico, explained to Sheriff’s Deputies that in an attempt to make the people on Orcas “suffer just like the whales and trees”, he attempted to use a tree limbing saw -on a metal pole- to cut through a 69,000 volt power line.

According to the sheriff’s report, the man, identified as Gabriel Mondragon, also stated he wanted to protest “the death of Luna the whale and the destruction of the rain forest.”

Being well informed on the power of high voltage power lines, Mondragon cleverly put on several pair of latex dish washing gloves to isolate him from electrocution, and proceeded to touch saw to power line.

Mondragon was found laying on his back some distance from the line, his pants had been on fire, where they had burned away from his hips down. His gloves had partially melted, and he had “first, second and third degree burns’ on various parts of his body. He was, in short, lucky to be alive. He now has some medical and legal problems to deal with, including some interest in his actions by the FBI.

An OPALCO lineman who responded to the outage was on site at the substation within twenty minutes and called the sheriff’s office for an aid car. The sheriff’s office and fire department arrived with aid within ten minutes.

The substation is surrounded by a barbwire topped fence, so Mondragon first tried to reach the power line by standing on a ladder. When that failed to get him close enough to be electrocuted, he went over the fence, and was then was able to reach a power line.

Thousands of people on parts of Orcas and Shaw only experienced a temporary loss of electrical power as a result Mondragon’s action, while Mondragon was flow off to Harborview Hospital in Seattle via AirLift Northwest, for treatment of what are being called serious injuries..

The incident has been reported to the FBI, and Sheriff Bill Cumming said County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord will determine what, if any, charges may be pending, but at the least he may be charged with trespass. Gaylord said he would review the on-scene reports prior to making a determination of what appropriate charges may be.

OPALCO General Manager Randy Cornelius said he was required to notify the FBI of the incident, but that he had no information on any of the specifics of the case.

Cumming said because the crime involved a utility, the FBI has jurisdiction to enter the case. Given Mondragon’s statements, it seems likely he may also face additional charges related to “eco-terrorism”. The FBI defines eco-terrorism as “acts of violence in protest of harm to animals or to the environment, ” and it “is the United States' No.1 terrorism threat from inside its own borders.”
(....)

Interesting differences, though. The PI implies he was "from around here", and the local paper leaves out the bit about him being missing an arm, although I suppose it could have been amputated after that article was published.