Deputy hopes Gibson thinks about DUI

In this booking photo released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, actor-director Mel Gibson is seen in a booking photo taken Friday, July 28, 2006. An official police report on Gibson's arrest on drunken driving charges on Friday substantiates claims that he made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened a deputy, a law enforcement official said Monday, July 31. (AP Photo/Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

The sheriff's deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunken driving said in an interview Monday that he feels bad for damage to the star's reputation but hopes Gibson thinks twice before drinking and driving.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee told The Associated Press that he considered it a routine arrest and didn't take any comments made by Gibson seriously.

"I don't take pride in hurting Mr. Gibson," said Mee, a 17-year deputy. "What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking. That would be my hope that this would accomplish that. I don't want to ruin his career. I don't want to defame him in any way or hurt him."

Gibson reportedly unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade and made other offensive comments when he was pulled over, initially for speeding, early Friday in Malibu and was then arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Gibson has issued a public apology for his conduct without specifying what he said or did.

Mee, who is Jewish, would not comment specifically on what Gibson said.

"That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said in an interview outside his home. "There's two things that booze does. It amplifies your basic personality. If you are a laid-back kind of person, just an easy going kind of person, booze is going to amplify that and you'll be just sitting around going how it's a wonderful day.

"But, if you are high-strung person, it's going to amplify that and all the bad things are going to come out."

Mee said he has had a hard time sleeping since the arrest and is wary of speaking publicly about the incident.

Mee said he has made hundreds of drunken driving arrests and considered Gibson's arrest routine.

"I guess I'm a little naive because the other deputies who came in the station that morning, they were all taken in by his celebrity and they were saying this ... is going to be bigger than the

Nick Nolte thing."

Nolte's arrest on Sept. 11, 2002, after failing a sobriety test on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu became infamous after the release of his booking photo, which showed him wild-haired and bleary-eyed.