Gibson charged with DUI

LOS ANGELES – Mel Gibson was charged with misdemeanor drunken driving Wednesday, five days after he was stopped on Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway for speeding and made anti-Semitic comments that have stained his public image.

Prosecutors made no mention of Gibson’s self-described “belligerent behavior” and “despicable” remarks in the complaint, which also charges him with having an elevated blood-alcohol level and an open container of liquor in his car.

If convicted, Gibson faces up to six months in jail, the district attorney’s office said.

The Sheriff’s Department said Gibson was stopped at 2:36 a.m. Friday for driving at 87 mph in a 45-mph zone. Authorities said his blood-alcohol level tested at 0.12 percent. A California driver is legally intoxicated at 0.08 percent.

According to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Sheriff’s Department report says Gibson told the arresting deputy: “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and asked him, “Are you a Jew?”

Gibson has issued two public apologies, and his publicist, Alan Nierob, has said the actor-director was in a program for alcohol abuse before the arrest and has entered another on an outpatient basis.