Actor Mel Gibson is close to a plea agreement with prosecutors and will be with charged misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight he had with his ex-girlfriend last year, TheWrap has confirmed.
Reached for comment by TheWrap, Gibson's attorney, Blair Berk, released the following statement: "I know from almost 20 years as a criminal defense lawyer that sometimes justice can come for a client at too high a personal price. That is particularly so for Mel, whose right to due process can only be exercised in this case with an enormous media circus attached. Mel's priority throughout all of this has been that the best interests of his young daughter Lucia and the rest of his children be put first in any decisions made. It is with only that in mind that he asked me to approach the District Attorney with a proposal that would bring all of this to an immediate end."
The charges relate to a January 2010 fight with Gibson's ex, Oksana Grigorieva.
Prosecutors are still deciding whether to press charges against her for trying to extort Gibson with secretly recorded telephone conversations featuring the actor ranting threats and racist epithets.
The couple, who have a 14-month-old daughter together, split in April 2010 after dating for a year.
The break-up and subsequent custody battle turned very dark for the 55-year old Oscar winner last summer. Grigorieva got a restraining order against the actor/director from seeing her or their daughter. On June 24, Gibson had the judge’s order modified so he could see the child.
Then, in early July, Gibson was charged with assault.
Gibson screaming racial and sexist epitaphs at Grigorieva in a series of tapes leaked to the press. "You look like a f—ing pig in heat,” Gibson tells Grigorieva on one recording, “and if you get raped by a pack of n—ers, it will be your fault."
