The L.A. Sheriff's Dept. deputy who arrested Mel Gibson during the famous drunken Malibu tirade has struck a settlement deal in his discrimination lawsuit with L.A. County.

James Mee had sued the County ... claiming he felt he was unfairly punished and overlooked for promotions because the County allegedly targeted him as the person who leaked Mel Gibson's DUI arrest documents to TMZ in 2006.

But that claim had previously been thrown out by the judge, so Mee's only remaining claim was that he was discriminated against because he is Jewish.

Now, Mee and the County have reached a settlement in the discrimination case ... forever ending the saga between Mee and the County. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.


11:23 AM PST -- Mee's legal team tells us ... the settlement is not final yet ... and is still pending approval of the County Claims Board

Still, Mee's attorney, Etan Z. Lorant, tells TMZ ... "Deputy Mee did not file his lawsuit for money. He filed his lawsuit for the principle of what had happened to him.  He strongly believes in his case."

Lorant's co-counsel, Yael Trock, adds, "Deputy Mee loved and still loves being a Sheriff's deputy. All he wants is to put this employment dispute behind him and go back to his work to protect the public.

Trock adds, "He just wanted everyone to be treated equally and fairly. That was very important to him and he was willing to stand up for it." 

The L.A. County Deputy Sheriff who arrested Mel Gibson in 2006 for DUI will be allowed to take his Department to trial, on grounds it retaliated against him after Mel's anti-Semitic rant appeared on TMZ.



A judge just rejected L.A. County's motion to dismiss James Mee's lawsuit, on grounds he waited too long to file it.

Mee was ordered by his superiors to remove 4 pages of his original report, which detailed Mel's diatribe against Jews, including, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."  The Sheriff tried covering up Mel's behavior, claiming the DUI arrest was executed "without incident."

The L.A. County Sheriff and other officials believe Mee leaked the document to TMZ.

After TMZ obtained the 4-pages and published them, Mee, who is Jewish, claims his superiors went after him with a vengeance, getting search warrants, passing him over for promotion and allegedly harassing him.

Mee claims in his lawsuit  the Sheriff's Department is discriminating against him because he's Jewish.  Now a jury will decide if he's right.

James Mee -- the L.A. County Deputy Sheriff who arrested Mel Gibson in 2006 -- has lashed out at his department in new legal papers, claiming Mel represented the Sheriff when he hurled those now-famous anti-Semitic slurs.



In the legal docs, Mee's lawyer says at the time of Gibson's arrest, the actor was a spokesperson for the L.A. County Sheriff's Star Organization, and was close friends with the Sheriff himself, Lee Baca.

Mee recounts that during the arrest, Gibson shouted at him that he was a "f**king Jew" and that "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

Mee claims Gibson's ties with the Sheriff were so strong that he was representing the Department with his comments. And Mee reiterates in the docs that he was singled out for the leak of the information to TMZ.

As you know, TMZ obtained the incendiary 4-pages of the initial report Mee was ordered to remove.

Mee claims he was mercilessly harassed by his Department after TMZ published the story and the Department singled him out as the alleged leak from the get-go, even though there were other people who could have done it.

The County of Los Angeles is asking a judge to throw out the lawsuit filed by the deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for DUI in 2006.



TMZ broke the story that James Mee -- the deputy who arrested Mel in Malibu and witnessed his anti-Semitic rant -- filed a lawsuit against the County of L.A., claiming he was retaliated against after the L.A. County Sheriff's Department alleged he leaked the police report to TMZ.

Now the County is firing back -- asking that the suit be dismissed -- claiming the assertion that the Sheriff was retaliating against the deputy because he was Jewish is simply unsupportable.  In legal papers, the County says, "Simply receiving a directive to proceed in one manner with respect to a police report cannot in and of itself be considered discriminatory."

As we first reported, Mee was ordered to take out all references to Mel's anti-Semitic comments.

As for Mee's other allegations -- that he was "unjustly" denied a promotion, got a negative performance review and was forced to transfer to a less prestigious station --the County claims Mee's religion had nothing to do with it.

The L.A. Sheriff's Deputy who arrested Mel Gibson in the infamous 2006 arrest is suing the County of L.A., claiming he's the victim of retaliation.



In the lawsuit, Deputy James Mee claims at the time of his arrest, Gibson was a spokesperson for the L.A. County Sheriff's Star Program and had filed a public service announcement for Sheriff Lee Baca, whom Mee says was Gibson's "close friend."

Mee claims he was "unjustly denied" a promotion -- the result of "religious discrimination and retaliation for plaintiff's religion and his report of anti-Semitic remarks by [Gibson]."

You'll recall, TMZ broke the story of Gibson's anti-Semitic rant.  Mee is Jewish.

The suit claims Sergeant Tracy Palmer erased a videotape involving the arrest of Gibson.  Sources tell TMZ Mee has said the alleged video shows Gibson out of control at the jail after his arrest.  Mee has told people the tape shows Gibson screaming at the top of his lungs and pacing in the cell.

TMZ has independently confirmed there was indeed a videotape of Mel at the jail -- the cameras are mounted and trained on the booking area in the Lost Hills jail.

This is the first time Mee has revealed at length the events of July 28, 2006. He claims, as TMZ first reported, he documented Gibson's tirade in his initial report but was ordered by superiors to rewrite the report, deleting the slurs. The lawsuit -- filed by attorneys Etan Lorant and Yael Trock -- goes on to say the original 4 pages in Mee's report were published by TMZ.

Mee says he was immediately targeted as the alleged TMZ leak, despite the fact that other non-Jewish deputies had access to the 4 pages.  Mee says he was unmercifully interrogated, received a negative job performance report and claims it was all the result of religious discrimination.

Mee says the department launched several investigations targeting him, to determine if he was the TMZ leak.  Although Mee didn't mention it, the Sheriff's Department secretly obtained search warrants for the work and home phone records of Harvey Levin.  The Sheriff's Department has never determined who leaked the document.

Sheriff's spokesperson Steve Whitmore tells TMZ, "We are looking forward to telling the whole story and the whole story is not being told in this lawsuit.  Ethnicity and gender have nothing to do with any of this.  An investigation was launched by the Sheriff's Department to try and discover who was leaking official documents without authorization.  That is a crime."