MALONE -- A former employee told police Zachary White showed him how to bypass National Grid power meters, using a special tool to open the electrical panel and pull fuses.

One "outage" at Titus Mountain Sports Center lasted 39 days, according to documents filed with Malone Town Court, where White was arraigned Wednesday on 10 charges, including grand larceny, theft of services, tampering and possession of stolen property.

Police investigators say White, the facility's general manager, obtained "multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars" in free electricity and that a further review of records could reveal alleged thefts into the millions of dollars.

White, 43, is free on $15,000 cash bail.

A special prosecutor has been requested to take over the case because there is a conflict of interest with the Franklin County District Attorney's Office.

If he is convicted of the most serious charge, White could spend 15 years in state prison in what some are calling the largest theft-of-services case in National Grid history.

The company's Revenue Protection Unit found at least 30 instances between Feb. 22, 2005, and March 15 of this year where, it says, power was intentionally switched off at the ski resort's pump houses and ski lifts.

Pulling the fuses prevents the meter from registering power usage.

The power was off from as little as a few minutes to several weeks at a time, the documents state.

special tool

Former Titus employee Stewart P. Sage Jr. of Malone told State Police investigators he worked at the ski center for 16 years and "observed illegal behavior regarding use of electricity."

He said that, four years ago, White showed him how to pull the cover off the panel boxes at each of the four pump houses and use a plastic set of pliers to remove the three fuses inside.

"He told me he got the tool from an employee at Niagara Mohawk," Sage told police.

The tool was stowed in White's desk, along with extra power-company seals that are placed on an electrical box to prove it has not been tampered with since its last meter reading.

"During my employment, I was instructed by Zack White to pull fuses from meter boxes," Sage said in his statement to investigators. "I did what Zack said or else I wouldn't have had a job.