New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020nypost.comrologist appointments.” Last
week was another CAT scan and
an MRI.
T
HIS case gets at two light-
ning rods no one in the
Hamptons ever wants to
touch: class and race. But
the realities of life here, the vast
chasm between the haves and
have-nots, became unavoidable in
the early days of the pandemic,
with rich Manhattanites — some
knowingly infected — fleeing to
their second homes out East,
stripping all the grocery stores
bare, buying second freezers at
the P.C. Richard & Son in
Southampton to hoard their food,
then bragging online about their
plenty.
As spring gave way to summer
and the COVID curve flattened,
tensions eased. More full-time
residents out here means more
work for local maids, landscapers
and caretakers — manual labor-
ers who, like Peralta-Mera and hisfamily, most often belong to East
Hampton’s huge Ecuadorean pop-
ulation. These men and women
are visible in the daylight hours
pruning trees, cleaning houses or
fixing rooftops. At night, they fall
into the shadows while the 1 per-
cent comes out to play.
“The Hispanic subpopulation
out here is made up of exceed-
ingly hardworking people with
deep religious roots,” Chakmak-
ian said. “I have another client in-
jured on the job — a well-knowngeneral contractor — dumped
out in front of Southampton Hos-
pital unconscious. These people
are treated as expendable.”
Streep’s demeanor since the at-
tack has been one of arrogance
and entitlement. A few weeks
after his arrest, he was photo-
graphed shirtless and carefree on
the fire escape of his luxury
Prince Street apartment, then
later that day playing basketball
with friends, telling the press to
“talk to my lawyer.”A
LONG with three dozen pro-
testers, Peralta-Mera at-
tended a rally outside East
Hampton Justice Court on
Oct. 8 during a virtual hearing.
Streep, who works for a venture-
capital firm, was a no-show. He was
photographed strolling casually in
Manhattan, coffee cup in hand.
A GoFundMe called Help Da-
vid, established by Kurt Wenzel
of his “Dopo family,” has so far
raised $29,990 of a $100,000 goal
to help pay medical bills. On Oct.
25, supporters again gathered out-
side the courthouse in East
Hampton, chanting, “David,
friend, we are with you,” and
“What do we want? Justice! When
do we want it? Now!”
Yet Charles Streep looks like
he’s getting a wrist-slap at best.
“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 of-
fenses with which he was
charged,” Streep’s lawyer, An-
drew J. Weinstein, told The Post.
“We are confident that Mr. Streep
will be fully vindicated.”
As to why the charges were re-
duced, the Suffolk County 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.”
That video is online for anyone
to see. Watch it and ask: If the at-
tacker had been Hispanic, the
victim white, and the consequen-
ces as grievous, would these
charges have been reduced?
For his part, Peralta-Mera says
he’d “like to think [more of] the
criminal-justice system” than al-
lowing fame, wealth and connec-
tions to influence his case. In fact,
he dreams of returning to John Jay
and pursuing his dream of working
in law enforcement as a detective.
What happened to him, he says,
“encourages me more. I feel I
have to be out there and be of
help.”Stephen Yanggrim recovery — while rich kid roams free
broad daylight: Video surveillance shows Charles Streep (in white) and Peralta-Mera fighting in a Hamptons parking lot.SplashNews.comman about town: Charles Streep (above), a nephew of Oscar
winner Meryl, was arrested for assault and strangulation in East Hampton
in August. On Oct. 8, rather than attend a virtual hearing for the case, he
was photographed outside his Soho home, coffee in hand (above left).SplashNews.com; Jared Siskin/PMC