The Mel Gibson Tapes: Actor Re-Ups Custody Battle as Fifth Recorded Rant Leaks
Gibson's soon-to-be ex-wife reportedly writes declaration in his favor.
July 16, 2010 — -- In another twist in the Mel Gibson saga, lawyers for the actor and his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, faced off in family court Thursday.
Leaving the courtroom, they offered no clues about the custody hearing for the couple's 8-month-old daughter, Lucia. According to TMZ.com, Gibson still has visitation rights.
It's been a rough week for Gibson's reputation -- day after day, new recordings of his expletive-laced, ranting phone calls with Grigorieva have been leaked online.
And today, RadarOnline posted a photo of Grigorieva, taken after Gibson allegedly punched her in January, showing her teeth clearly broken and her lips swollen.
The California court session came as a fifth audiotape was released by RadarOnline. In it, a man, presumably Gibson, slams Grigorieva for being a user and says he's broke because of her.
"I don't have any f***ing money. I have to support you and everybody else, I have to sell paintings," he growls. "I've spent too much f***ing money on you."
Grigorieva replies, "How much money do you spend on me? You don't spend more money on me than anybody else," eliciting this rant from Gibson: "I've spent more than $5 million on you!"
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesperson told reporters that recordings were handed over to detectives during a closed-door session of the family court. They are moving forward with investigations into possible domestic abuse and child endangerment.
"We're going to analyze them," L.A. Sheriff's department spokesman Steve Whitmore said about the tapes. "The detectives will review them. There will be forensic scientists as well as investigators."
Whether or not the tapes have been doctored, they're damaging to Gibson's custody bid.
"They are pretty significant and they're pretty shocking," California divorce attorney Neal Hersh said on "Good Morning America" today. "The question is whether or not they were doctored, whether they were legally obtained and all of those things are legal issues. But just listening to the tapes, assuming they're accurate, you know it's the old story a pictures worth 1,000 words and these tapes are pretty poignant pictures of someones personality and rage."
Mel Gibson: New Rant Released
A representative for Gibson has neither confirmed nor denied the tapes' existence or content, and on Thursday again declined to comment on the matter citing litigation between the two.
While Gibson's fared poorly in the court of public opinion, he has at least one person on his side: his soon-to-be ex-wife, Robyn Gibson. According to the Associated Press, Robyn Gibson has written a sworn declaration stating that the "Braveheart" star never physically abused her or their children during 28 years of marriage.
Reuters news service contributed to this report.