UPDATE – Jan. 19 11:35a.m.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office has confirmed that they have potential charges of domestic violence against Mel Gibson "actively under review."
The office also confirmed that they’ve met with the star’s lawyers Tuesday as was reported. L.A. D.A. Steve Cooley released the following statement Wednesday morning:
Allegations of domestic violence involving Mel Gibson are actively under review by the District Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Gibson’s attorneys met yesterday with Airport Branch prosecutors and provided information they felt was relevant to the matter. Information received will be taken into account in deciding whether or not to file charges.
Any decisions made by the D.A.’s office in this case will be made public in a timely manner.
EARLIER
Months after reports of his vile tongue and brutish behavior emerged, Mel Gibson is about to be charged with domestic violence for assaulting ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, according to Radar Online.
The website said Blair Berk, the Oscar winner’s criminal lawyer, had “a last-ditch meeting late Tuesday afternoon” with Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lynch at the Airport Courthouse. Berk, says the site, hoped to persuade the authorities not to charge her client. The meeting reportedly ended around 5 p.m. PT. Radar said that law enforcement sources say charges against Gibson are "almost inevitable."
Under California law, the “Lethal Weapon” star and “The Passion of the Christ” director (pictured right with Grigorieva in better times) could face up to four years in jail if convicted of a felony and a year if found guilty of a misdemeanor.
That jail time could substantially increase if the actor is found to have committed more than one act of domestic violence. The actor has repeatedly said through his representatives that his former lover of one year is trying to extort him as the two fight over custody of their infant daughter.
Attempts by TheWrap to reach Blair Berk and the D.A.’s office were not immediately returned.
The sheriff’s department, which handed over its findings on Gibson to the D.A.’s office in late August, began investigating the star in early July after Grigorieva, who filed a restraining order against the actor on June 24, brought forth allegations that the American-born and Australian-raised actor assaulted her on Jan 6, 2010.
Despite indications that the film would be shelved, Gibson’s starring role in “The Beaver,” directed by long-time friend Jodie Foster, will see the light of day at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 16, before going into limited release.
Reports emerged last summer of a seemingly out of control Gibson, who had already reportedly spewed a series of anti-Semitic statements at police during a DUI stop, bellowing racial and sexist epitaphs at Grigorieva in a series of tapes leaked to the news media. "You look like a f—ing pig in heat,” Gibson told Grigorieva on one recording, “and if you get raped by a pack of n—ers, it will be your fault."
In another recording, released later, Grigorieva verbally confronts Gibson about alleged violence against her and their 8-month daughter Lucia. “You hit me,” the former singer says, “and you hit her while she was in my hands.”
Mel doesn’t answer the accusation but he doesn’t deny it. “You need a f—ing kick up the ass for being a b—h c–t gold-digging whore with a pussy son,” Gibson screams at Grigorieva in response. “I want my child and no one will believe you. So f— you. And I’m not giving you my house, and you can rot unless you crawl back, suck my c–k and you say you’re sorry. In that order.”
Gibson got a bit of much need public support in August of last year when Robyn, his not-yet ex-wife of 28 years and mother of seven of his children, said that the former “Mad Max” star was never violent to her or their children.
Robyn Gibson’s words might have stemmed the tide temporarily but they couldn’t stop the flood of disgust that Gibson encountered from a town once willing to forgive his transgressions.
Despite the relatively low profile he has kept in recent months, Gibson, who was dropped by his agency WME as the allegations and further accounts of his personal behavior became public, has become a Hollywood pariah. His cameo in "The Hangover 2" was canned, and he was replaced by Liam Neeson.
