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.

GIBSON EX NOW TARGET OF EXTORTION INVESTIGATION, LA COUNTY SHERIFF SAYS

The Ukrainian woman who by “coincidence” only gets pregnant by rich celebrities, notwithstanding her sperm rich past

Although this story comes from TMZ.com, since the source is a named spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department speaking for attribution it is probably very reliable.

[UPDATE: The AP has now picked up this story since we posted.]

The bottom line is that Los Angeles law enforcement is now actively investigating Mel Gibson’s charges, made through his attorney Blair Berk (a partner with famed criminal lawyer Barry Tarlow in Tarlow & Berk) in a presentation yesterday, that his ex girlfriend committed the crime of extortion by threatening to go public with the now infamous rant tapes unless the actor paid her millions.

According to Mel’s camp, a deal was even agreed to in principle and written up whereby the ex was to receive $15,000,000—but she got greedy and refused to sign on the dotted line.

Says Sheriff Department spokesperson Steve Whitmore to TMZ: “Extortion allegations have been brought to our attention and we are certainly going to be looking at that."

Those of you that think that a criminal or civil (brought by Mel for every "hryvnia" the scam artist has stuffed into the mattress) extortion charge (known colloquially as “blackmail”) is far fetched should read our prior coverage of the attorney and client who tried to shakedown Michael Flatley with a rape allegation. A subsequent civil suit for extortion resulted in an $11 million dollar judgment in the Lord of the Dance star’s favor.

Extortion is committed whenever a person asks for money or other financial benefits under an express or implied threat of going public with reputation damaging information—even if the information is true.

And then there is the thee years in a woman’s prison (sorry Comrade, no Crystal there) the fecund scamstress is facing for secretly recording Gibson in violation of Penal Code Section 632. As in 3 years in the joint for EACH illegal recording.

Bye, bye baby, bye bye.

UPDATE: The MSM now has this story: Sheriff investigating Gibson's ex for extortion (AP)

MEL GIBSON EX FABRICATED ASSAULT IN $10M EXTORTION ATTEMPT, HER OWN DENTIST SAYS, OTHER EXPERTS CONFIRM

Don’t worry baby, I’m on the pill….

No surprises here—given her scam-artist past, but it now appears that Mel Gibson’s ex was NOT punched in the mouth (either "twice" or at all) as is alleged by the Russian “singer” (whose CD, produced by Gibson, sold 200 copies); the alleged Gibson "one-two" punch that damaged the veneers on two front teeth never happened. And even the Ukrainian grafter’s own dentist says so.

Here is the story from the Huffington Post—who was one of Gibson’s early detractors—a true sign that the worm has turned:

"Sources connected to [the ex’s] dentist say he believes the photo is doctored.

"The sources quote Dr. Ross Shelden as saying, "The nose is not hers. The lips are not right. It's not a true and accurate picture. It has definitely been altered."

"PREVIOUSLY: Radar has released a photo of Mel Gibson's ex, [name redacted], after she says he punched her twice in the mouth, knocking out her teeth and giving her a concussion.

"[She] lost a veneer and the right front tooth was severely chipped," a source familiar with the investigation told Radar.

“[Her] teeth were not damaged. Her dentist submitted a sworn declaration that one veneer was knocked out and the other was damaged. Experts who have analyzed the photos believe the injury is inconsistent with being punched in the mouth since there is no soft tissue damage--and it may have been self-inflicted.

“There is "no evidence of external or internal damage," a law enforcement source [said] "Sources also [said that the ex] tried to extort Mel out of more than $10 million in return for keeping the tapes of his explosive, racist rant private, and there are emails to prove it.”

We hate to say “I told you so” but we will anyway. BTW, before you judge Mel, please keep in mind that not only did he leave his wife for this--scam artist --he paid his first wife hundreds of millions of dollars in the divorce.

ARE THE MEL GIBSON TAPES ADMISSIBLE IN COURT?

The lovely couple

Legal Analysis

By Blogonaut


One cannot turn on the television without being bombarded with outtakes from audio recordings of Mel Gibson’s ex calmly pushing his buttons as she secretly records his diatribes. What can we say, the bitch is evil, and he is nuts.

But are the tapes admissible in court?

At least one other blog has tried to definitively answer that question and failed miserably. But since we have our own “legal expert” (moi), before you finish reading this post you will know the answer.

The stakes are high for what’s-her-name, the Russian that Gibson now calls the “Goldigger”, because if there is no applicable statutory exception, each time Gibson’s money loving ex-GF recorded the actor that Hollywood loves to hate, she committed a violation of California Penal Code Section 632—which is punishable by a jail term of 12 months OR 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison (that’s for each recording).

So let’s get to the exceptions.

Yes, there are several very specific and very limited exceptions to the criminal statute, that are limited by the conjunctive requirements of intent, subject matter, and scope:

The recording must be made for the purpose of gathering evidence that the person reasonably believes relates to the commission of the crimes of:

1. Extortion;

2. Kidnapping;

3. Bribery;

4. Any crime involving violence against the person;

5. Harassing telephone calls.

There are two categories that are arguably applicable.

The first is #4—any crime involving violence against the person.

But remember, the Implanted One must not only actually believe that the scope of the recorded conversation is limited to evidence that Mel Gibson hit her, that belief must be reasonable. So next time that you visit Radar.com to give a listen to Ms. Boobs calmly baiting Mad Mel into a rage ask yourself—is this conversation reasonably related to incidents wherein the most hated man in Hollywood hit the Russian temptress? Or is she just pushing Mel’s buttons in aid of getting him to yell, scream, and use abusive language so she can damage the actor-producer in the tabloid media?

We think it is quite obviously the later.

But wait; there is another potentially applicable exception: #5—gathering evidence of harassing phone calls.

If the Implanted One can establish a prior pattern of Mad Mel calling her residence at all hours of the night and day making harassing phone calls, then all recordings that she made over the phone after that harassment commenced are fair game.

Additionally, one must ask, was the required purpose of the recordings--to gather evidence of on of the specified crimes--the purpose for which the recordings were made? Remember, in addition to the other requirements, the purpose of the recordings must be to gather evidence of one of the enumerated crimes--and no other.

Of course, the best evidence of Miss Boob’s intent is: What subsequent use did she make of the tapes?

Did she immediately turn the tapes over to law enforcement to aid in a prosecution for domestic battery and/or harassing phone calls?

Or did she instead give the recordings to a tabloid publication in aid of damaging what is left of Mad Mel’s reputation?

We all know the answer to that question, don’t we. The answer is clear even if you hate Mel Gibson.

The Implanted One did not give the tapes to police at all, she sent the tapes to Radar on-line to embarrass the actor and to cause as much damage to him in the public eye as possible.

Therefore, in our opinion, no exception applies, our Russian Beauty does not pass go, and she is guilty of multiple violations of Penal Code Section 632.

In addition, by the express terms of Penal Code Section 632, the tapes are not admissible in any prosecution against the actor for domestic violence (not that the tapes would be necessary to prove that all his ex wants for Christmas is two front teeth—and why).

The only question is will the Los Angeles District Attorney have the guts, in an election year when he is running for California Attorney General, to charge a domestic violence victim with illegally taping her abuser? Because the Implanted One would bear the burden of proving in any Section 632 prosecution that her intent was evidence gathering as specified, and that she cannot do--no way.

In our opinion both parties could use some time in jail. And then we can all go back to watching the BP underwater webcam.