Hamptons 'Road Rage' Case: Streep Lawyer Files Motion To Dismiss

EAST HAMPTON, NY — A lawyer for Charles Harrison Streep, 31, who was charged in a reported"road rage" incident in East Hampton in August, filed a motion to dismiss a civil complaint last Wednesday.

Streep, the nephew of actress Meryl Streep, was arrested at an East Hampton Village home on August 27 and and charged with second degree assault and second degree strangulation, police said. Felony charges against Streep were dismissed and reduced to misdemeanors by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, Streep's attorneys said in November.

East Hampton Village Police said the incident took place at 11:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Chase Bank on Main Street. Police responded to reports of a possible fight and found David Peralta, 18, of Springs, who had sustained "serious head trauma" and needed emergency surgery, officials said. An investigation revealed that Streep had assaulted him, police said.

The motion to dismiss, filed by Randy Mastro, said that Peralta "has not stated a viable claim" against his client and said there is no such thing as "negligent assault or battery". The motion added: "Moreover, a viable negligence claim would require Streep to have owed a duty to Peralta, but of course, he owed none, so no duty is or could be alleged here."

In addition, the motion reads: "In short, plaintiff has now brought multiple unintelligible causes of action, claiming assault, battery, absolute criminal liability, negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and punitive damages ... all glommed together and each insufficiently pled. Whether considered collectively or independently, these claims fail. Defendant therefore respectfully now seeks dismissal of the entirety of plaintiff’s amended complaint, with prejudice, for failure to state a cause of action."

Mastro's motion asked that Peralta's assault, battery, absolute criminal liability, negligence, gross negligence, and duplicative recklessness claims should be dismissed.

Edmond C. Chakmakian, attorney for Peralta, also represents Peralta in the civil case in New York City, where Streep lives when not at his family's summer home in East Hampton. "We want compensation for his pain and suffering, for his medical bills, which are well over $100,000, and for future medical bills," he said. "We faces a long road of therapy, neurologic workup, MRIs — he faces a very uncertain future."

Of the motion to dismiss, Chakmakian told Patch: "This is a laughable attempt by Streep to avoid civil liability for this vicious assault that left this teenager with a traumatic brain injury."

After the incident, which occurred when Streep reportedly failed to yield at a stop sign, Peralta suffered an epidural hematoma, Chakmakian said. Peralta is a "hardworking kid," with two jobs who was about to begin his sophomore year at John Jay when the incident took place, Chakmakian said. "Now he doesn't leave his house," has cognitive issues, is light sensitive and has severe headaches, Chakmakian said. "His brain injury was life-altering," he said.

The community has come together to help Peralta: A GoFundMe page, "Help David," was organized by Kurt Wenzel of East Hampton.