Martha Complaint Held

Despite four weeks of review by Suffolk District Attorney James M. Catterson Jr., no decision has yet been made on whether the county will press criminal charges against Martha Stewart.

Ms. Stewart, the home-making authority, is accused of backing her Chevrolet Suburban into a landscaper working for her Georgica Close Road neighbor, Harry Macklowe.

East Hampton Village police said at the time of the May 21 incident that misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, and possibly even assault seemed imminent.

The landscaper, whose complaint was obtained by The Star this week, is Matthew J. Munnich, 23, of Port Jefferson Station, an employee of Whitmore's, an Amagansett landscaping company.

Foot-Dragging?

Several persons close to the case have criticized what they say is foot-dragging by the District Attorney. Mr. Catterson did not return phone calls this week, but his spokesman, Drew Biondo, maintained it was not unusual for such an investigation to take so long.

Noting that the D.A. had discretion to review any case within the county and had received many letters about this one, Mr. Biondo said that when a decision was announced, "You'll know the truth."

Mr. Munnich told village police Ms. Stewart had boxed him in between her vehicle and the control box of a gate, bruising his side. On May 27 police sent the case to the D.A.'s East End Bureau, and it has reportedly been in Mr. Catterson's personal office since.

'May I Help You?'

Police and the D.A.'s office have refused to release a copy of the complaint until all investigations are complete, but another source provided The Star with a copy.

Mr. Munnich identifies himself in the papers as a "foreman trainee" with horticulture-related college degrees. At 9:30 p.m. on May 21, he states, as he and his crew were loading their truck, a dark-colored Suburban with Connecticut license plates drove into Mr. Macklowe's driveway.

"I walked up to the driver's side of the car . . . and I said, 'May I help you?' . . . She asked me if we, meaning Whitmore's, had built a fence and I told her no. At that point she started to get extremely angry."

The woman in the driver's seat hurled several obscenities at the crew, the complaint alleges, and then said she was going to call the police. "She said, 'Don't you leave, I'm calling the police and you're going to take that fence down.' "

Recognition

She picked up her car phone. "Right around that point," Mr. Munnich states in his complaint, "I realized that this person was Martha Stewart, who has a house next door. I recognized her from TV."

He was standing next to the driver's side door, he told police, between it and a security entrance keypad "which sticks up out of the ground," when Ms. Stewart began backing out, "still yelling."

Landscaper's Statement

"As she started to back out, she was trying to dial the phone, close her window, and turned [sic] the steering wheel to the right, and the front of the car moved to the left and pinned me against the electronic security box," says the landscaper's statement. "I was trapped against the electronic box, the sideview mirror on the driver's door, and the driver's door."

"I started to yell, 'You're . . . crushing me, stop the car, let me out.' She looked right at me and kept backing."

Finally, the complaint states, "as the car was crushing me more into the security device, the mirror collapsed forward and I was able to go into the bushes and avoid getting hit by the front of her car. She backed out into the road. . . ."

Black And Blue

At that point, Mr. Munnich said, he ran to his truck to write down the license plate number on the Suburban.

According to his statement, he gave the piece of paper, as well as the sweatshirt he was wearing at the time, to Village Sgt. Gerard Larsen on the morning after the encounter. Sergeant Larsen notarized the complaint.

Mr. Munnich told police he was injured on "my right side from the electronic security box. It is black and blue. It was giving me some pain last night and it was giving me some discomfort today. I also have noticed that it is still black and blue and that there is some kind of lump in that area and it hurts when I press on it."

D.A. Cites 'Notoriety'

"As she was backing the car up and I was pinned," Mr. Munnich's complaint concludes, "I was very scared that I was going to be seriously, seriously hurt because I knew the security box wasn't going to move because it's in a cement pad and I couldn't move the truck. I was just lucky the mirror collapsed."

Ms. Stewart's Connecticut attorney, Jeffrey Stephens, said yesterday he would not comment on the matter while it was under investigation.

The District Attorney told The Star three weeks ago that "given all the notoriety surrounding" the parties, the case is "worth a longer look-see to be fair." The same week, East Hampton Village Police Chief Glen Stonemetz said he thought such intensive review of a relatively minor case, with charges no more serious than misdemeanor, was "unusual."

Investigation

Asked this week if he knew of a reason for the delay, the chief said, "None whatsoever. . . . I would like [Mr. Catterson] to make a decision." In response to a question, the chief said two phone calls he made to Mr. Catterson in the past week had gone unanswered.

Mr. Catterson had earlier told The Star that his office's chief investigator, Robert Plankser, had been assigned to the case. At least one witness was said to be a friend of Ms. Stewart's who lives in England.

Chief Stonemetz said the village detectives who handled Mr. Mun nich's complaint had been interviewed by the investigator.

Mr. Munnich's attorney, Edward L. Wolf of Hauppauge, was in court this week and could not be reached by press time. Earlier, he had mentioned the possibility of a civil suit against Ms. Stewart.

Neighbors' Dispute

Addie Munnich of Port Jefferson Station, Mr. Munnich's mother, said she had been advised by her son's attorney not to speak for publication at this time.

Jack Whitmore, the owner of Whitmore's, Leonard Ackerman, Ms. Stewart's East Hampton attorney, Mr. Macklowe, and Michael Walsh, his Water Mill attorney, have not answered repeated calls.

The dispute between Ms. Stewart, who owns a second East Hampton house on Lily Pond Lane and another house in Westport, Conn., and Mr. Macklowe, a Manhattan real estate developer active in charitable causes, has continued for almost two years. It centers on plantings and lighting fixtures allegedly installed by Mr. Macklowe near wetlands at the border of their properties.

He was cited by the village for doing the work without appropriate permits, and is scheduled to appear in East Hampton Town Justice Court on July 8 to answer the charge.

Next Door

Ms. Stewart owns the house next door, designed by the late architect Gordon Bunshaft as a vacation retreat for his wife and himself.

At the beginning of June, the village's code enforcement officer, Thom as Lawrence, was preparing several additional charges against Mr. Macklowe, stating that the fence Whitmore's crew installed that night was also put in without a permit.

Ms. Stewart often brings crews to her houses for filming. She did so at her Lily Pond Lane house last Thursday and Friday, according to village police, who said she had paid in advance for the use of parking spaces at Main Beach in order to accommodate the overflow of vehicles.

On Friday afternoon a friend of Ms. Stewart's called village police to report that an unknown male was harassing her.

Police said it was a member of the paparazzi. He was warned to stay off private property.