New year, fresh slate? Not quite, when it comes to the Mel Gibson meltdown.
It's been five months since the DUI rant heard round the world, but fallout from the incident shows no signs of tapering off.
James Mee, the Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who was the subject of Gibson's postarrest tantrum, now claims he's been the victim of harassment and unfairly targeted by his superiors, who purportedly believe Mee leaked the unflattering details of the actor's tequila-fueled bust to the media.
Shortly after Gibson's July 28 arrest, the sheriff's department told reporters that the Apocalypto mastermind had been taken into custody "without incident." Mee's arrest report, however, told a very different story, claiming the Oscar winner was belligerent, attempted to escape custody, spouted a "barrage" of anti-Semitic sentiments and referred to a female officer as "sugar tits."
The report, which the department seemingly planned to quash, quickly found its way onto the entertainment Website tmz.com. While the site has never divulged the source of the leak, Mee asserts that within his department, he has been automatically—and wrongfully—pegged as the snitch.
"His life and career would be a lot different had he not made that arrest," Mee's attorney, Richard Shinee, told the Los Angeles Times in Thursday's edition.
Shinee also said that Mee was almost immediately transferred from his Malibu patrol to a post in the L.A. suburb of Agoura Hills following Gibsongate. The lawyer claims officials told Mee his transfer was a protective measure because they worried that paparazzi may try to bait the deputy into a money-shot altercation.
Shinee told the Times that since taking on his new assignment, Mee has been routinely singled out and criticized by his supervising officers.
In August, just after the Gibson arrest, Shinee says Mee was written up by his sergeant for failing to arrive at work on time, despite the fact that his schedule had been changed without his knowledge.
On Sept. 13, shortly after his transfer, Shinee claims Mee's home computer and phone records were confiscated and Mee underwent three hours of interrogation.
Earlier this month, Mee was called in while out on assignment and questioned over why he failed to check a box on a standard report, the lawyer says.
Sheriff's department officials have denied that any undue targeting was taking place, but they did not dispute Shinee's sequence of events.
Department investigators, however, are continuing to search for the source of the leak, claiming that whoever passed along the arrest report was likely in violation of department rules.
As for Gibson, he's already on the road to personal—and career—recovery.
The Passion of the Christ director pleaded no contest to the DUI charge and was sentenced to three years' probation.
His mea culpa tour, which included tête-à-têtes with Jewish religious leaders, a public apology and an interview with Diane Sawyer, ended in October with the director claiming the arrest was "kind of a blessing" and crediting it with leading him back to sobriety.
Earlier this month, Gibson proved that despite his "brutal public beating," he still had some pull at the box office, as his Mayan-language epic Apocalypto debuted at number one (ticket sales have since cooled, and the film has grossed just $37.5 million to date) and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film.