"I am unsure why Zack would pull the fuses. The only thing I can think was that he was trying to make himself look good to corporate headquarters in Minnesota."

WORKER FIRED

Sage said he was fired in November 2007 after asking White for a raise for himself and other workers.

He also told investigators White had him discharge the main ski lodge's leach field into a culvert near the U.S. Ski Patrol building in the spring of 2006.

Sage said that for the past four years, White had routinely pulled the fuses in the middle of November before the meters were read, when the facility was testing its snowmaking and ski-lift equipment.

And, for the past three years, when the ski resort has hosted a pond-skimming event, where contestants try to ski across a man-made pond without falling in the water, White would turn the power off, Sage said.

This year's event was scheduled for March 15, so, Sage said, he went to National Grid on March 13 and told what he knew about the alleged tampering and the upcoming pond-skimming event.

INSPECTORS ON SITE

A pair of National Grid field inspectors arrived at Titus Mountain on March 15 and told police investigators they saw the unlocked current-transformer cabinet with its cover removed, as well as the three dislodged fuses and the special tool.

While they waited for State Police to arrive, another Titus Mountain employee, Brian Beach, told them that, each year when snowmaking starts and temperatures hover below 30 degrees, the 30 pieces of snowmaking equipment work 24 hours a day; that's for November, December and sometimes into January.

One inspector, Peter Allen, said White showed up at the pump house and admitted he had pulled the fuses that day but said it was the only time he knew of that they had been removed.

Later, Allen said, White told him that National Grid employees would sometimes help him pull the fuses as a favor and that he didn't know there was anything wrong with that.

DOCUMENTATION

Allen included a multiple-page grid showing power outages and restarts for the Titus Mountain electricity accounts, most of them involving the power supply to Chair Lift 1 and 2.

For example, the paperwork shows power was "out" continuously for five days from 1:25 p.m. on Aug. 10, 2005, until 1:24 p.m. on Aug. 15 and another four days and two hours from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 that year.