Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Freeport man has been indicted in connection with a midmorning drug-impaired driving crash that seriously injured a U.S. postal worker on the job in October 2025.
Jeffrey Butt, 45, was arraigned Tuesday before Judge Robert Bogle on a grand jury indictment charging him with second-degree assault, a violent felony; second-degree vehicular assault; two counts of driving while ability impaired by drugs; driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs; reckless driving; and three counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Butt pleaded not guilty. Bail was continued at $200,000 cash, $400,000 bond or a $2 million partially secured bond. He is scheduled to return to court March 5, 2026. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
“This defendant was allegedly high on a combination of oxycodone and cocaine when he veered onto the shoulder of busy Merrick Road in the midmorning and crushed a U.S. postal worker loading mail into his delivery truck,” Donnelly said. “The postal employee, who had been on the job for just a year, was nearly pinned between the vehicles and is lucky to be alive. After undergoing surgery that required a rod and screws in 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.”
According to the indictment, on Oct. 10, 2025, at approximately 10:40 a.m., Butt was driving a 2025 Chevrolet Trax on Merrick Road when he allegedly drove onto the shoulder in front of a U.S. Post Office and struck a 50-year-old postal worker who was loading mail into his delivery truck.
Prosecutors said the impact crushed the victim against the back of the mail truck, forcing the truck into two unoccupied parked vehicles.
Police responding to the scene found Butt seated in the driver’s seat of his vehicle with his foot still on the gas pedal, authorities said.
Both Butt and the victim were transported to Nassau University Medical Center for treatment.
The victim suffered a fractured left femur that required surgical implantation of a rod, a fractured left ankle, two spinal fractures and significant internal bleeding, which required multiple blood transfusions.
At the scene, police observed a glassine envelope, a white powdery substance, a plastic straw and a metal spoon on the driver’s side of Butt’s vehicle, prosecutors said.
Butt was also allegedly found in possession of four and a half round gray pills, two capsules and two glassine envelopes that later tested positive for oxycodone and cocaine. A blood sample taken from Butt after the crash also tested positive for both substances, authorities said.
Butt was arrested Oct. 10, 2025, by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s 7th Precinct.
