A Freeport man was indicted on Thursday, Jan. 29, for a mid-morning drugged driving crash that seriously injured a U.S. postal worker on the job in October 2025, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced.
Jeffrey Butt, 45, was arraigned on charges of assault, 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 criminal possession of a controlled substance. He pleaded not guilty and bail was continued at $200,000 cash, $400,000 bond, and $2 million partially secured bond.
Butt is due back in court on March 5, and if convicted, he faces up to 7 years in prison.
On Oct. 10, 2025, in front of a U.S. Post Office location on Merrick Road, Butt, 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, Donnelly said.
Butt drove his car onto the shoulder of Merrick Road, crushing the postal worker against the back of his mail truck and sending the mail truck crashing into two unoccupied parked cars, she said.
When police arrived on the scene, Butt was still in the driver’s seat of his vehicle with his foot on the gas pedal, the DA said.
The postal worker suffered a fractured left femur, requiring the implantation of a rod, a fractured left ankle, two spinal fractures, and significant internal bleeding, which required several blood transfusions, Donnelly said.
“The postal employee, on the job for just a year, was nearly pinned between the vehicles and is lucky to be alive today,” Donnelly said after the indictment.
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 car, the DA said.
He was also allegedly found in possession of four and a half round gray pills, two capsule pills and two glassine envelopes, which were later tested and determined to be oxycodone and cocaine, Donnelly said.
A blood sample drawn after the crash also revealed the presence of oxycodone and cocaine in Butt’s system, Donnelly said.
