MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Freeport man was indicted for a mid-morning drugged driving crash that seriously injured a U.S. postal worker on the job in October 2025.
Jeffrey Butt, 45, was arraigned today before Judge Robert Bogle on grand jury indictment charges of Assault in the Second Degree (a D violent felony); Vehicular Assault in the Second Degree (an E felony); two counts of Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs (an unclassified misdemeanor); Driving While Ability Impaired by the Combined Influence of Drugs (an unclassified misdemeanor); Reckless Driving (an unclassified misdemeanor); and three counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree (an A misdemeanor).
The defendant pleaded not guilty. Bail was continued at $200,000 cash, $400,000 bond, and $2 million partially secured bond. He is due back in court on March 5, 2026. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 7 years in prison.
“This defendant was allegedly high on a combination of oxycodone and cocaine when he veered into the shoulder on busy Merrick Road in the mid-morning and crushed a U.S. postal worker loading mail into his delivery truck,” said DA Donnelly. “The postal employee, on the job for just a year, was nearly pinned between the vehicles and is lucky to be alive today. After the insertion of a rod and screws into his leg and ankle, the husband and father is now able to walk with the assistance of crutches but remains out of work – all because of this defendant’s alleged reckless disregard for the law.”
DA Donnelly said that, according to the indictment, on October 10, 2025, at approximately 10:40 a.m. in front of a U.S. Post Office location on Merrick Road, the defendant, driving a 2025 Chevy Trax, allegedly struck a 50-year-old U.S. postal worker as he was loading his mail truck on the shoulder of the roadway.
The defendant drove his vehicle onto the shoulder of Merrick Road, crushing the victim against the back of his mail truck.
The force of the impact sent the mail truck crashing into two unoccupied parked cars.
When police arrived on scene, the defendant was still in the driver’s seat of his vehicle with his foot on the gas pedal.
The victim and defendant were both transported to Nassau University Medical Center for treatment.
The victim suffered a fractured left femur, requiring the implantation of a rod, a fractured left ankle, two spinal fractures, and significant internal bleeding, which required the victim to undergo several blood transfusions.
At the scene, police observed a glassine envelope, white powdery substance, plastic straw, and a metal spoon on the driver’s side of the defendant’s vehicle.
The defendant was also allegedly found in possession of four and a half round gray pills, two capsule pills, and two glassine envelopes, that were later tested and determined to be oxycodone and cocaine.
Testing of a sample of the defendant’s blood drawn after the crash also revealed the presence of oxycodone and cocaine.
Butt was arrested on October 10, 2025, by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s 7th Precinct Squad.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney James Taglienti of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau under the supervision of Bureau Chief Michael Bushwack and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Litigation Division Kevin Higgins. The defendant is represented by Keith Lavallee, Esq. and Joseph Carbone, Esq.
The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
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