Mel Gibson: 'I Am Not An Anti-Semite'

ADL Accepts Apology To 'Everyone In The Jewish Community'

(CBS/AP) 
Deputy Mee would not comment specifically on Gibson's remarks.

"That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said in an interview outside his home. "There's two things that booze does. It amplifies your basic personality. If you are a laid-back kind of person, just an easy going kind of person, booze is going to amplify that and you'll be just sitting around going how it's a wonderful day.

"But, if you are high-strung person, it's going to amplify that and all the bad things are going to come out."

The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, said a portion of Mee's arrest report was placed under lock and key while police officials discussed how much information about the arrest should be made public.

"They were like chickens running around with their heads cut off," one source told the Times.

The Sheriff's Department's account of the arrest made no mention of the alleged anti-Semitic remarks and said the arrest occurred without incident.

The subsequent TMZ report triggered claims that the arrest report was sanitized.

A sheriff's spokesman defended the department's handling of the case.

"We hope we've done it with not only professionalism and intelligence, but held to the highest standard of legal and moral imperative," spokesman Steve Whitmore told reporters at sheriff's headquarters.

The issue of a cover-up arose in part because Gibson has supported the Sheriff's Department. He once dressed in a deputy's uniform to film public service announcements for Sheriff Lee Baca's Star Organization, which raises scholarships for children of department employees. Gibson also donated $10,000, Whitmore said.

Mel Gibson's publicist says the actor has sought treatment for his battle with alcohol.

"Mel has entered into an ongoing program of recovery," Nierob told theshowbuzz.com on Monday. "The guy is trying to stay alive."

This is not the first time Gibson has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Gibson produced, directed and financed "The Passion of the Christ," which some Jewish leaders said cast Jews as the killers of Jesus. Days before "Passion" was released, Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, was quoted as saying the Holocaust was mostly "fiction."

The arrest has led to intense speculation about the impact it may have on Gibson's career.

"I can't remember an incident that is as jaw-droppingly grotesque for a career as this one," Hollywood media expert Michael Levine said on CBS News' The Early Show.

"I don't think I want to see any more Mel Gibson movies," Barbara Walters said Monday on the ABC talk show "The View."

Gibson, 50, won a best-director Oscar for 1995's "Braveheart," and starred in the "Lethal Weapon" and "Mad Max" films, among others.