Guilty plea in rampage

Elmont man faces up to three years in prison for destructive spree in utility truck last August

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Joel Grasman, 52, pleaded guilty on April 2 to creating a mile-long path of destruction stretching from Elmont to Valley Stream with a stolen truck last August, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Grasman faces one to three years in prison, prosecutors said, for singlehandedly causing more than $500,000 in damage to utility lines, homes and cars in the early-morning hours of Aug. 27. He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree criminal tampering before County Court Judge Anthony Paradiso. According to Rice, Grasman also faces the possibility of a court-ordered restitution to utility companies and home and car owners.

Rice said that Grasman, who was a Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee for more than 20 years, went to an MTA facility in Richmond Hill and loaded a Mack “boom” truck with welding equipment. He drove the truck to Elmont to unload the equipment, and ended up striking a number of telephone poles, traffic lights, utility wires and trees after the boom on the truck was extended. According to Rice, he was arrested later the same day after leaving the truck on the entrance ramp of the South State Parkway at Exit 15, in Valley Stream.

“Over the course of a few hours, this defendant stole valuable equipment from his employer and wreaked havoc on several neighborhoods unlucky enough to be in his path,” Rice said in a release. “My office will continue our efforts to hold this defendant accountable for the destruction he caused.”

Grasman will be sentenced on

May 13.