Gibson Advance Plea Deal Avoids Courtroom Media Frenzy

Mel Gibson concluded his latest bout with notoriety last Thursday, pleading no contest to a charge of drunken driving under a deal in which he’ll serve three years probation, pay fines of more than $1600 and participate in alcohol rehabilitation programs.

Gibson was stopped around 2:30 a.m. on July 28, while driving his 2006 Lexus LS on Pacific Coast Highway allegedly at a speed of over 87 mph—almost double the posted limit.

Allegations of what Gibson himself described as “belligerent behavior” toward the arresting officer and the making of “despicable” anti-Semitic remarks made headlines around the world leading to a classic celebrity scrum.

Compounding matters, unreleased information about what took place during the arrest was leaked to a celebrity-oriented website. This is now the subject of a separate official sheriff’s department investigation into possible violations of law.

Gibson’s lawyer, Blair Berk, arranged to move his court appearance up by more than a month, allowing Gibson to avoid another round of media frenzy. The actor-director was not required to appear in court in the misdemeanor case. This is the judge’s option.

The abrupt advancement of the case was announced to the news media by the district attorney’s office moments after prosecutor Gina Satriano was informed the deal she had worked on with Berk was approved by Malibu Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira.

But representatives of the media who showed up at the courthouse found little in the way of sound bites and camera footage.

Court documents indicate that Gibson had signed the plea agreement and waived his right to a jury trial earlier last week but the paperwork was not filed until Thursday’s proceeding.

As part of the plea deal, the 50-year-old Gibson pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of driving while having a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent or higher. A second misdemeanor count, driving under the influence of alcohol, and the infraction of driving with an open container of alcohol were dismissed.

A plea of no-contest, or nolo contendere, is not a formal admission of guilt but is equivalent to a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

Prosecutor Gina Satriano told the Malibu Surfside News in a subsequent interview that “the disposition of the case was appropriate for the circumstances of a standard first-time DUI.”

Stressing she is “not one who says more than the public record,” Satriano indicated that the short notice to the media was not a case of “trying to hide the ball.”

She said Berk initiated the effort to advance the case from the start, but that the final determination on whether that would happen was up to the judge. She said that as soon as the local court clerk contacted all the parties, the DA’s office put out the word.

Satriano told The News that in addition to the three year’s probation, Gibson was ordered to participate in a year of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on a schedule of five times a week for 4 1/2 months and three meetings a week for the next 7 1/2 months. Gibson was also ordered to complete a three-month alcohol education and counseling program for first offenders.

The veteran prosecutor, who has handled a number of high-profile, substance-abuse related cases, said Gibson’s own public admissions about his struggles with alcohol “could not be ignored” and were a factor in establishing the self-help aspects of the court’s orders, which are more stringent than usually applied to most first offenses.

Gibson’s driver license was also restricted for 90 days, according to the prosecutor.

Through his counsel, Gibson has volunteered to make a public-service announcement about the hazards of drinking and driving, but Mira did not make that a condition of his sentencing.

Satriano indicated that Gibson has already voluntarily begun a rehabilitation program.

He was ordered to appear in court Jan. 17 for a progress report.

BY ANNE SOBLE