Deputy Who Arrested Mel Gibson Sues Sheriff's Department

The deputy who arrested Mel Gibson on suspicion of drunk driving in 2006 has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, alleging that he was humiliated and passed over for promotion after he refused to remove the anti-Semitic remarks Gibson made from an arrest report.

In the lawsuit filed Aug. 31, James Mee, 55, is seeking undisclosed damages for loss of income, benefits, medical expenses and for emotional distress and mental suffering.

According to the lawsuit, when Mee, who is Jewish, submitted his report of the arrest he was asked to remove the slurs Gibson made about Jews and instead write a supplemental report including the actor's remarks that was to be marked "confidential" and not made immediately available to the public.

The lawsuit alleges that this concession was made for Gibson because he was "a close friend of Sheriff Lee Baca, and had close associations with the top administration personnel of the LASD." Mee initially protested, but eventually wrote the supplemental report.

However, four pages from the initial arrest report containing an account of the anti-Semitic slurs were published after being leaked to entertainment website TMZ.

Mee says he was not the source of this leak and that the department didn't find evidence of his guilt. Yet, he contends, he was not awarded promotions to a traffic investigator or motorcycle deputy position because of discrimination.

"You go to work and you don't know what to expect," Mee told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm constantly in fear."

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, denied the allegations.

"We look forward to telling the whole story and we're not even close to that, not by any stretch of the imagination," Whitmore said.

"It has nothing to do with ethnicity or religious beliefs," he said. "The sheriff's department launched an investigation into the individual who was releasing confidential government documents to the public without authorization, and that is a crime."

In August 2006, Mee was "accused of, investigated for and interrogated by the Internal Affairs Bureau regarding the leakage of the arrest report, despite the fact that several others had access to the report," his lawsuit alleges.

The department intentionally took about four years to complete the investigation, and the delay affected Mee's ability to be promoted, according to the suit.

He was involuntarily transferred from the Malibu/Lost Hills Station to the Agoura patrol area and received a negative performance report, which interfered with his promotion, he said.

In September of 2006, he was served with a search warrant for his bank accounts and home, and his personal computer was removed. However, no incriminating evidence was found against him, the suit said.