The headline-grabbing Manhattan paparazzi chase of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could end up leading to charges against two people, the NYPD indicated in a U.K. court filing revealed Wednesday.
In an ongoing legal battle related to a reduction in Harry’s security in Britain, the royal’s attorneys submitted a copy of a Dec. 6 letter from NYPD brass saying the May 16 car chase in the Big Apple was “reckless.”
Investigators found “reckless disregard of vehicle and traffic laws and persistently dangerous and unacceptable [behavior] on the part of paparazzi during the night in question,” according to text of a judgment in High Court in London.
Paparazzi were chasing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, in cars, scooters and bicycles that forced the couple’s team and an NYPD lead car to weave in and out of traffic to avoid crashing “on several occasions,” the document states.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry previously said the chase began around 10 p.m., eventually prompting the couple and Markle’s mother to seek help from Upper East Side cops at the NYPD’s 19th Precinct.
The royals’ claim that the chase lasted two hours in busy Manhattan prompted widespread skepticism, with Mayor Adams saying at the time: “I would find it hard to believe that there was a two-hour high-speed chase.” He later said they were driving around for roughly 45 minutes before going to the precinct.
Beyond stating “there was sufficient evidence to arrest two individuals for reckless endangerment,” the new filing provided no details on possible legal action on this side of The Pond.
The incident prompted “certain changes to the security posture that will be afforded to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” the document stated, citing the police letter.
The NYPD on Wednesday deferred comment on the paparazzi investigation to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which did not immediately reply.
Princess Diana, Harry’s mother, died in a Paris car crash in 1997, a tragedy partly blamed on a high-speed paparazzi pursuit.
In 2020, Harry and Meghan relinquished their royal roles and relocated to the U.S., citing intense media harassment as one of their deciding factors.
Harry has been fighting to get back his taxpayer-funded security, but the High Court on Wednesday upheld the British government’s February 2020 decision to make him pay for his own protection.
