Deputy who arrested Mel Gibson settles discrimination lawsuit

Washington, Feb 15 (ANI): The deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunken driving has settled his lawsuit - which claimed that he suffered religious discrimination at work - with the Sheriff's Department.

Attorneys for James Mee said a 50,000-dollar settlement was reached and must be approved by a county claims board. A trial scheduled to begin this week was cancelled.

Mee, who is Jewish, claimed his superiors discriminated against him after arresting Gibson in 2006. Gibson had appeared in a public service announcement while building close relations with the department.

"Deputy Mee did not file his lawsuit for money, but he filed his lawsuit for the principle of what happened to him and he strongly believed in his case," Fox News quoted his attorney Etan Lorant as saying.

Sheriff Lee Baca's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department acknowledged no wrongdoing in the settlement.

"The sheriff has no issues with the settlement," Whitmore said.

"It was purely a business decision," he said.

Mee, who pulled over Gibson in Malibu in 2006, claims his supervisors forced him to remove anti-Semitic comments made by the actor at the time from a report. Mee said he later received negative performance reviews and was denied promotion opportunities. (ANI)