Gibson abruptly cops plea in drunken-driving case
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 17, 2006
MALIBU, Calif. – Mel Gibson ended his legal hangover Thursday, pleading no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of drunken driving in a deal that put him on probation for three years, fined him and sent him to alcohol rehabilitation classes.
His lawyers arranged to move his scheduled court appearance up by over a month, allowing Gibson to avoid creating a media frenzy with his plea. But he still faces the fallout from the anti-Semitic tirade he unleashed on a sheriff’s deputy the night of his arrest.
Gibson did not have to appear in the misdemeanor case and he did not, allowing attorney Blair Berk to handle the plea before Malibu Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira.
The abrupt advancement of the proceeding was announced to the news media by the district attorney’s office with no time for most reporters to reach the distant courthouse before the plea was over.
“Media requests (for photo access) received after proceedings already completed,” the case file noted.
Court documents showed that Gibson signed the plea agreement and waived his right to a jury trial on Monday but the paperwork was filed just before Thursday’s proceeding.
Gibson was stopped around 2:30 a.m. on July 28 while driving on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and made anti-Semitic remarks to the arresting deputy, plunging Gibson into a scandal that led him to later apologize for what he called “belligerent behavior” and “despicable” remarks.
Gibson pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor of driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood-alcohol level. A second misdemeanor count, driving under the influence of alcohol, and the infraction of driving with an open container of alcohol, were dismissed.
