Officer Mee 'harassed': Who leaked arrest report to TMZ?

By Stone Martindale Dec 28, 2006, 16:44 GMT

epa00783313 (FILES) Picture dated 28 October 2005 shows US actor and director Mel Gibson during a press conference in Boca del Rio, Mexico. Mel Gibson was arrested Friday, 28 July 2006, on suspicion of drunken driving, the Los Angeles County Sheriff\'s Department said. EPA/MARIO GUZMAN

CALABASAS, CA -Lost Hills Sheriff's Station is the home base of Deputy James Mee, the arresting officer in the Mel Gibson summer incident on PCH.  Mee says he's being harassed by officials investigating the report leak of Mel Gibson's drunk driving arrest. Sheriff's officials are deny it, yet continue their internal investigation on who did reveal the report to TMZ.com.

Deputy James Mee's attorney, Richard Shinee, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that his client was transferred from patrolling Malibu to another assignment in nearby Agoura Hills, and "unfairly singled out for scrutiny by his supervisors." According to the Times.

The lawyer also alleged that the sheriff's officials "subjected Mee to a three-hour interrogation and served a search warrant on his home in September, taking a computer and phone records." Reported the Times.

"His life and career would be a lot different had he not made that arrest," Shinee said to the Times.

The Sheriff's Department came under heavy criticism over it's attempts to whitewash the incident, initially telling media sources that Gibson had been arrested "without incident."

Officer Mee's report was somehow, someway, leaked to TMZ.com, attorney Harvey Levin's celebrity website that specializes in all legal maters involving the courthouse, and the law.

After Gibson's public arrest, the Sheriff's Department tried to determine who leaked Mee's report to TMZ.com. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Sheriff's Department probe into the leak of the report, a violation of department rules, is still ongoing.