MEL GIBSON’S EX BACKED OUT OF $15 M SETTLEMENT REACHED AT PRIVATE MEDIATION

TMZ is reporting a big number that his been mentioned in several prior news reports: Fifteen Million Dollars.

That is the financial package that the ex’s politically connected former attorney, civil trial lawyer Eric M. George, won for his client at a private mediation earlier this year.

The ex—and Gibson—signed a written, confidential settlement agreement at that time, but for reasons assumed to boil down to greed, the ex reneged on the agreement, hired her present family law attorney, and leaked the audio tapes to Radar online through a third party now believed to be her sister.

Gibson’s lawyers scoff at the idea that the ex backed out of the settlement because it called for unsupervised visitation between Gibson and his child—because since the date of the alleged “assault” until she leaked the tapes he had been encouraging Gibson to spend as much time with the child as possible--and he did.

In addition, her family law attorney said in court this week that the settlement agreement was “irrelevant” because she was represented by George, and not a family law attorney, when she agreed (in writing) to the $15 million settlement package that included visitation rights for Gibson.

It is hard to imagine the ex’s current attorney thinking that she could even come close to a settlement of that magnitude now, since all that she will be entitled to in family court is monthly child support—provided that she is awarded custody of the child.

Clearly, the tapes (or more precisely the promise to keep them confidential)—which were previewed at the mediation—played a major role in Gibson’s agreement to pay the Russian scam artist fifteen million dollars, but now that the tapes have been played on every cable TV station in the world 24/7 for two weeks, her leverage has evaporated.

In other words, the Russian’s threat to sue Gibson for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress if the case did not settle in mediation was a way of negotiating a financial settlement in exchange for the tapes never seeing the light of day without calling it extortion. But now that the tapes are out there, what more can she do to Gibson?

The Russian had her moment of maximum leverage when, through attorney #1, she negotiated a $15M windfall, and through greed she flushed it down the toilet.

We hope her sister got a lot of money from Radar online for those tampered with tapes. Because that is all the grifter is ever going to see over and above monthly child support.