Meryl Streep’s nephew gets off with $250 fine in Hamptons road-rage case
A nephew of Oscar winner Meryl Streep on Wednesday copped a no-jail plea deal over a violent Hamptons road-rage incident — after prosecutors blamed the alleged victim for causing “his own injuries” in the case.
Charles Harrison Streep, 32, pleaded down to a charge of disorderly conduct in the Aug. 24, 2020, East Hampton altercation that allegedly left 19-year-old David Peralta-Mera with serious head injuries. He was ordered to pay a $250 fine and $125 surcharge.
Streep — a son of Meryl Streep’s brother Dana Streep and his wife, Mary — was originally charged with felony crimes of strangulation and assault, but those raps were later downgraded to misdemeanor offenses.
He and Peralta-Mera, then 18, got into a fight in a Chase Bank parking lot in downtown East Hampton last summer after their cars nearly collided.
Surveillance footage appeared to show Streep, who was driving an Audi convertible, shoving Peralta after getting out of his car and rushing up to him.
One of the men is lifted into the air by the other — and they both then come crashing to the ground, the video shows.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brosco said in court Wednesday that the video, in part, proves Peralta-Mera was responsible for his own injuries.
“Peralta, a former high school wrestler, caused his own injuries in this case. That’s the People’s determination from not only consulting with the video, with the medical examiner’s office … but with other consultants, with other doctors,” she said.
Streep’s defense attorney Andrew J. Weinsteinclaimed the evidence showed that Peralta-Mera “suffered his head injury when he grabbed Mr. Streep around his legs, hoisted him off the ground in a wrestling move, held him shoulder high, completely perpendicular in the air, and then, (like) something you might see in WWF, body-slammed him to the ground on his back, and fell with him, in the process hitting his head.”
“It’s worth noting that Mr. Streep suffered significant injuries when Mr. Peralta slammed him to the ground, including fractured vertebrae and a concussion,” Weinstein added.
In handing down Streep’s sentence, Justice Steven Tekulsky concurred, “There is nothing that suggests to me that this is not an appropriate plea.”
https://pagesix.com/2021/12/15/meryl-streeps-nephew-gets-off-with-250-fine-in-hamptons-road-rage-case/