Sheriff’s official confirms search of the home of the deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunk driving; stops short of calling him suspect in leak of report. Deputy says superiors are harassing him.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
A high official in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed this week that the home of the deputy who arrested Mel Gibson last summer for drunken driving was searched as part of an investigation into the leaking of the arrest report to a tabloid Web site. But Chief Neal Tyler stopped short of calling Deputy James Mee a suspect, and denied an accusation by Mee’s attorney in last week’s Los Angeles Times that Mee has been mistreated by his superiors.
“The search warrant was serviced by the department as part of an ongoing investigation into how an unapproved report got to the Web site,” said Tyler, who oversees eight Sheriff’s stations in the northern part of the county, including Malibu/Lost Hills. “We’re investigating every possible aspect of the Gibson arrest and how that darn report got outside when it wasn’t supposed to.”
Last week, Mee’s attorney, Richard Shinee, told the Los Angeles Times that his client had been mistreated by his superiors since the Gibson arrest. He said Mee was reassigned from patrol in Malibu to a desk job in Agoura, and was twice unnecessarily scolded for his work. Tyler said that Mee was not being treated unfairly.
“I do have information about the specific instances [that Mee’s attorney alleged],” Tyler said. “But I’m not at liberty to communicate about them because state law prohibits me from discussing personnel matters. I’m kind of constrained with my ability to back up my statements that he isn’t being treated unfairly.”
Mee declined to comment to The Malibu Times. His attorney did not return several phone calls.
Gibson was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving last summer near his Serra Retreat home, while driving on Pacific Coast Highway after spending time at Moonshadows restaurant. The Sheriff’s Department at first told the media that the arrest had occurred without incident. But a partial report written by Mee appeared the next day on the tabloid Web site, TMZ.com, stating that Gibson had made anti-Semitic remarks and acted belligerently. Gibson later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of driving with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit.
Two investigations were begun after the incident, one looking into whether Gibson received preferential treatment during the arrest, and another to find out who leaked the report. A preliminary investigation, Tyler said, determined that Gibson had not gotten any preferential treatment. But the investigation on the leaking of the report is ongoing.
“I’m not intimately familiar with the details of that investigation,” said Tyler, who said he had not been updated on it in more than a month. “We do not have a suspect in the classic sense. There is no one person at this stage that we think is the most likely person.”
Tyler continued, “I wouldn’t say it is focused on him [Mee]. We don’t know yet how this thing got out. We’re going to keep going until we’ve exhausted all avenues, which may or may not determine who did it.”
Mee can be seen now at the Malibu/Lost Hills station doing front deskwork. He has not previously been seen at the front desk in recent years. Tyler said Mee working at the Agoura station is not associated with the Gibson arrest.
“At a station with up to 100 deputies, there are a number of personnel changes from month to month,” Tyler said. “It’s not uncommon for people’s assignments to be changed for a variety of needs and reasons. I can tell you he’s not sitting there because of anything to do with Mel Gibson.”
But Tyler said, even if Mee’s position at the front desk was due to the investigation, he would not be able to tell The Malibu Times.
“I admit I might not be able to tell if it were true because this is an ongoing investigation and it is a personnel matter … But I’ll say this, that’s not the case in this case.”