Tesla driver charged in road-rage attacks

A Tesla driver who allegedly carried out a series of road-rage attacks was charged with a dozen criminal counts, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Nathaniel Walter Radimak, 36, pleaded not guilty in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom to four counts each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats and one felony count of vandalism, along with two misdemeanor counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse.

Radimak — who is due back in court Feb. 14 — was ordered to remain jailed at the request of the prosecution, which cited a lengthy criminal history that spans nearly two decades and crosses multiple states and jurisdictions, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

He already has a pending case in which he is charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and a felony count of possession for sale of a controlled substance in connection with an alleged January 2020 road-rage attack on a motorist in Hollywood, according to the District Attorney’s Office. He allegedly had steroids and more than $30,000 when his vehicle was searched, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The latest case stems from a series of alleged attacks dating back to last June when Radimak is accused of threatening to assault a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

He is also accused of threatening to attack a woman at a storage facility in Atwater Village last Nov. 9, and allegedly getting out of his vehicle later that day to threaten another woman on a freeway and break one of her headlights, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors also allege that Radimak used a pipe to strike someone’s car on the Glendale (2) Freeway on Jan. 11, and that he allegedly nearly struck a couple’s vehicle with his car and then struck it with a metal pole after following them from a shopping mall in Pasadena the same day.

Radimark was taken into custody in Torrance about 3 p.m. Sunday by members of the California Highway Patrol’s Southern Division Major Crimes Unit.

“The assaults were captured on a dash-cam video and several leads were provided to our department by the public which led to the arrest,” the CHP reported.

In a statement, District Attorney George Gascón said, “The victims in this case were reasonably terrified by what they experienced, but this reign of terror ends today. Motorists in Los Angeles shouldn’t have to live in fear of being attacked while simply driving on the freeway.”

The case remains under investigation by the CHP and the Los Angeles and Pasadena police departments, according to the District Attorney’s Office.