An 18-year-old who was ‘attacked’ by Meryl Streep’s nephew in the Hamptons has medical bills topping $130,000.
David Peralta-Mera is now unable to work and can’t attend college, and his lawyer has said he is ‘probably not going to have much of a career’ as a result of his injuries.
It is alleged that Meryl Streep’s nephew, Charles Harrison Streep, fled the scene of the ‘obscenely’ violent attack as the victim he sneeringly dismissed as ‘just Spanish,’ lay bleeding on the ground with injuries that left him only minutes from death.
Peralta-Mera was airlifted to a hospital with a Level 1 trauma center, and required emergency surgery in which part of his skull was removed in order to treat a brain bleed.
The surgery has left him with a crescent-shape scar on his head where thick, blood-encrusted staples arched up from his right ear for some time after his surgery – a permanent reminder of what happened in August.
David Peralta, 18, (left) was hospitalized with severe head trauma and needed emergency surgery after the altercation with Charles Harrison Streep, 31 (right), who was charged with viciously attacking Peralta in August. The charges were later reduced
Surveillance camera footage from the incident showed Charles Harrison Streep (right) get out of his far (out of shot) and confront David Peralta-Mera (left) on August 24 in The Hamptons
The pair were seen pushing and shoving at first, with Peralta-Mera claiming that Streep was racially abusive towards him. But at one point in the confrontation, the surveillance footage shows Streep picking up Peralta-Mera and slamming him into the ground
‘I could have died,’ Peralta-Mera said to the New York Post. ‘I was in [the hospital] for a week. My head was swollen the first month and a half.’ Now, ‘I have to stay inside. Just a lot of doctor appointments and neurologist appointments.’
Due to light sensitivity, he now struggles with watching television, is unable to play video games, or read, or work out, and says that he finds himself losing his train of through 10 seconds into a conversation.
He must stay inside, and just last week he had another CAT scan and an MRI. His prognosis – in the short and long term – is currently unclear, according to the Post.
His civil lawyer, Edmond Chakmakian, told the news outlet that his medical bills are now climbing to well over $130,000 and he has been left unable to work, unable to drive his new car, unable to attend college this fall.
Peralta-Mera is ‘probably not going to have much of a career,’ Chakmakian said to the Post.
Streep was arrested at his parents $5 million Hamptons home three days after the attack and charged with two felonies – second degree assault and second-degree strangulation – and released on a $5,000 bail.
But the Suffolk County DA’s office recently lowered the charges against Streep to misdemeanours, with bail exonerated.
Speaking to why the charges were lowered, the DA’s office said in a statement: ‘This incident was captured on video, and the charges brought against the defendant are the appropriate charges under the law.’
Streep’s lawyer, Andrew J. Weinstein, told The Post ‘In our view, the recent court proceedings simply confirm what we have said all along – that Mr. Streep was innocent of both of the serious violent felony offenses with which he was charged. We are confident that Mr. Streep will be fully vindicated.’
In September, Peralta showed DailyMailTV the massive scar on his head and spoke of how he’s been left homebound and fearful. His medical bills are now reaching $130,000
Peralta (pictured with his mother) was hospitalized with severe head trauma and needed emergency surgery after the altercation with Streep in a parking lot outside a Chase bank in East Hampton on August 24. Peralta pictured in hospital after emergency surgery
Some of what happened is lost to Peralta due to the severity of his injuries which saw him unconscious and with a brain bleed
According to Peralta, Streep ‘blew through a stop sign,’ near the family’s East Hampton home and nearly collided with Peralta who was driving to get breakfast with his girlfriend.
Angry words were exchanged but, in a scene straight from a horror movie, rather than leave it at that, Peralta has alleged, Streep did an illegal U-turn and followed him into the parking lot where the alleged attack occurred.
In a matter of minutes everything changed as Streep confronted Peralta allegedly hurling racist insults before strangling him and throwing him to the ground. He fled the scene having dismissed his alleged victim as ‘just Spanish.’
Pictured: Charles Streep is spotted by the DailyMail.com outside his Manhattan apartment after his road rage attack on Perolta-Mera. He was charged with two felonies – second degree assault and second-degree strangulation – and released on a $5,000 bail. But later, the charges against him were lowered to misdemeanours
Approached by DailyMail.com as he wiled away his afternoon shooting hoops, Streep declined to comment and said, ‘Speak to my lawyer’ before packing up his kit and returning home
Peralta sustained a head injury that resulted in a potentially fatal brain bleed that saw him airlifted to Stony Brook Hospital, Southampton where surgeons performed a lifesaving craniotomy.
According to Peralta, ‘I didn’t deserve this. He said a bunch of racist things to me, just because I’m Hispanic. I don’t know what that has to do with anything.
‘He said he would throw me to the ground, threatened me and said I was ”just Spanish.”’
Peralta’s parents, Edgar, 47, and Jeny, 44, are from Ecuador though he himself was born in America, where he has lived all of his life.
He said, ‘I thought this only happens in movies. I never thought anything like this would ever happen to me. I’m not a bad guy. I’m not a bad person. I just work, come home, see my girlfriend and my family.
‘I don’t know why I deserve this, why this has happened.’
Peralta may never remember exactly what happened but his girlfriend Christina Lopez, 17, gave DailyMail.com an account of what she witnessed that day
Pictured the scene of the incident. An attorney for the 18-year-old is calling for Streep to face hate crime charges over the attack
Peralta’s family has brought a civil suit describing this as a, ‘completely unprovoked, violent and malicious attack,’ and demanding damages.
The 18-year-old college student had been due to start his sophomore year at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
His summer, to that point, had been pretty much like any other. Each day he rose at 6am to head to his first job at the tennis courts at SPORTIME, East Hampton, then took a break before heading to his evening shift at popular village restaurant, Dopo La Spiaggia where he worked as a food runner.
Streep is the son of Meryl’s brother Dana Streep and his wife Mary
By July, and after years of holding down two jobs every summer, he had saved up enough to buy his first car – a brand new, bright red Mustang. It was his pride and joy, and the car in which he and his girlfriend, Christina, were riding through East Hampton on the morning of August 24.
Peralta recalled, ‘We were just going to get breakfast and she needed to get cash at the Chase.’
Peralta said, ‘I just kept driving to the bank and then I see he followed me, and he gets out of his car and starts yelling at me multiple times about being Hispanic.’
According to Peralta, Streep also mocked his youthful appearance asking, ‘What are you? 14 or something?’
Some of what happened next is lost to Peralta due to the severity of his injuries which saw him unconscious and with a brain bleed.
But he remembers Streep got out of his car and angrily approached Peralta’s.
Medics had discovered a bleed on Peralta’s brain. He needed emergency surgery that was beyond the small hospital’s capability.
Barely a couple of hours after that innocent drive Peralta was being airlifted to Stony Brook Hospital in Southampton – the nearest facility with Level 1 Trauma capability. And every second that passed was a second closer to irreparable brain damage or death.
Peralta, pictured with his friends, now has a regimen of medication and pain killers and instead of dates with friends, his schedule is populated by appointments with specialists, check-ups, therapy and CAT scans
Today a crescent scar arcs across Peralta’s skull where surgeons went in to remove his skull cap and ease the pressure on his brain. The staples were only removed two days before he spoke with DailyMail.com and he moved his hand tentatively over it.
This is not the first time Streep has had a brush with the law, though it appears to be by far the most serious.
Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show that Streep was found guilty of disorderly conduct/physical offense (engaging in fighting or violent conduct, using obscene language or gestures) in an incident linked to a traffic stop in Pennsylvania in 2012.
For Peralta’s part, he said, he hopes for justice and to recover.
He said, ‘If you’re famous or have money it doesn’t mean you can treat other people just however you want.
‘It’s not how this world is supposed to be. It’s not how we’re supposed to treat each other.
‘I want justice. More than that I want him to pay for what he did to me. And I know it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to be long, but I just want to recover from this.’