A nephew of three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep is accused of choking and body-slamming a young man during a road-rage incident in the Hamptons — leaving him with a brain injury, his brother said Friday.
Charles Harrison Streep, 31, was charged with strangulation and assault, both felonies, in the broad-daylight attack in downtown East Hampton, cops said.
The 18-year-old victim was behind the wheel of a red Ford Mustang that passed close to Streep’s Audi convertible at the intersection of Main Street and The Circle around 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to court papers.
Streep allegedly threw his car into reverse and followed the Mustang into a Chase Bank parking lot, where both drivers began fighting.
Streep is accused of “striking, grabbing and lifting [the victim] off the ground by the neck with his arms” and of “lifting his limp body off the ground and then throwing him to the ground,” according to charging documents provided by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Cops responded to several 911 calls, but Streep was gone by the time they arrived, according to the East Hampton Independent.
The evidence against Streep includes eyewitness accounts and surveillance video from the bank and the J & G Enjoy Feet massage parlor across the street, according to court papers.
The victim refused medical attention at the scene and went home but later called for help and was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, village police Lt. Gregory Brown told the paper.
By 2:30 p.m., he had been airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital for emergency surgery, the paper said.
Streep was arrested Thursday morning at a house on Pondview Lane in East Hampton and released on $5,000 bail following his arraignment, police said.
The six-bedroom house — which the Zillow website estimates is worth $6.5 million — is listed in public records as the home of Streep’s mother, Mary Simon Streep, whose late father, William Simon, was the US treasury secretary during the Nixon and Ford administrations.
The victim’s family is from Ecuador and he’s scheduled to begin second-year studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice with hopes of becoming a detective, his older brother told Page Six.
“My mom is in shock. Hopefully, he has a good recovery. It’s a brain injury,” the brother said.
He added: “Famous people — they think they can get away with anything.”
Streep — whose father, Dana, had a bit part in his sister Meryl’s 1986 movie “Heartburn” — has been a “Pre-MBA Associate” since March at the VU Venture Partners investment firm’s Manhattan office, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The company, which lists him among “200+ VU Investor Fellows” on its website, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Streep answered the door at his apartment on Prince Street in Lower Manhattan on Friday afternoon but wouldn’t answer questions, saying, “I can’t really talk about this, I’m sorry.”
His defense lawyer, Stephen Grossman, said “there’s more” to the story but declined to elaborate.
“What really happened will come out,” he said Friday
Reps for Streep’s aunt, who holds the record for Oscar nominations with 21, didn’t return requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Lia Eustachewich