A pipe-wielding Tesla driver who hit a California highway with road rage was released from prison less than a year into his prison sentence on Wednesday, leaving his victim “disappointed” in the state’s justice system.
Nathaniel Radimak, 37, was released from state prison on Wednesday after serving just ten months of a five-year sentence handed down to a hot-tempered EV driver last September, according to KTLA 5 .
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Radimak had served “the full sentence as provided by law” and was given 424 days to be served while awaiting sentence, 212 actual days in jail, and another 212 days for good behavior.
During Radimak’s terror, he would crash his car through a metal pipe, threatening and harassing motorists in Southern California.
In a video that is now going viral, Radimak jumps out of a charcoal-colored Tesla Model X 2022 with no license plate and crashes into the back of a truck on January 11, 2023. Radimak runs away after hitting the vehicle several times.
Radimak was arrested a few weeks later, where police found steroids and more than $30,000 in his car.
After his arrest, it was discovered that Radimak had a long criminal record “that spanned almost two decades and spanned several states,” KTLA reported, citing prosecutors.
Last September, Radimak was found guilty of several criminal charges during the rampage from 2022 to 2023.
The street rager, however, will plead guilty to assault, vandalism, elder abuse, and criminal threats and will be sentenced to five years in prison after he struck a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Now freed and back on the streets of California, some of the women who were victims of his rampage are outraged by his release and are “concerned” for their safety.
High-profile lawyer Gloria Allred represented three victims of Radimak’s attack.
“I’m very disappointed with the overall outcome of this case as far as the release,” one of Radimak’s victims, referred to as Jane Doe, told KTLA Wednesday.
“I believe Radimak has learned from his mistakes and will be a changed person after some time.”
“I’m worried they’re going to try to find victims whose names have been released,” Jane Doe said.
Allred said his client was informed that he was being released from prison when he was released.
“His initial release shocked and disappointed many of the victims I represent,” Allred told NBC Los Angeles.
“Many of these victims were never asked about the plea deal and were never given the opportunity to speak at sentencing.”
One anonymous victim of Tesla’s terror, identified as “Jane Doe 1,” told NBC she “prayed” for a “short time behind bars teaching a lesson.”
Like Radimak’s other victims, she feels that the California justice system has failed her.
“Parole boards continue to allow offenders to walk free after serving minimal time, putting many innocent people at risk and sending the wrong message,” he said, slamming the Golden State’s flexibility in how it deals with criminals.
California’s violent crime rate in 2023 will be 18% higher than when Governor Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California.
In 2022, aggravated assaults in California increased by 25.3% and murders by 33.9% compared to 2019.
Nearly all inmates in California automatically receive Good Conduct Credit (GCC) when they enter the penal system under Proposition 57, which was passed in November 2016 before Newsome took office.
According to a 2023 report by CBS News, the GCC “reduces violent sentences by 33.3% and non-violent sentences by 50-66.6% when it comes to prison.”
Since 2019, tens of thousands of criminals have been released early on credit and then re-arrested for violent acts, the outlet reported.
“We don’t know if (the CDCR program) works,” the principal investigator for the California Public Policy Institute, Heather Harris, told the outlet in June 2023.
California lawmakers passed a bill requiring CDCR to track the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs after a state audit in 2018.
However, in 2019, Gov. Newsom vetoed the bill, saying “it would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to contract with researchers to conduct a recidivism analysis on the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs and submit a report to the Legislature. The purpose of this bill can be implemented administratively,” CBS reported.