More Fallout From Mel Gibson Arrest

Remember Mel Gibson’s quite memorable arrest and booking at the Lost Hills Sheriff Station?

Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ.com, is now threatening to sue the Sheriff’s Department for obtaining his phone records in their investigation into who leaked embarrassing details about Gibson’s alcohol-induced anti-semitic tirade.

Levin argues that the police have an obligation to provide accurate information as well as the question of legality with regard to obtaining personal records of their employees and reporters.

“The Sheriff’s dishonesty then was indefensible, it was corrupt,” Levin told the Radio & Television News Association, whose members met Tuesday at UCLA.

Levin said that he was stunned and outraged that the Sheriff’s Department obtained his phone records to pursue an internal investigation into the deputy. Levin suggested, ominously, that he has information indicating it has become standard procedure for the office to get reporters’ phone records.

“It breaks federal law, it breaks state law…I have reason now to believe they have done it again … to reporters. This is like Chinatown. It is disgusting,” he said. “We have met with lawyers and we are charting our course of action. This is not going to go away [and] I can only imagine the Pandora’s Box that will open up.”

“We are going to fight…it’s just stunning this can happen in 2009….This really caught us off guard. We didn’t have an inkling. It’s taken a week to get our bearings.”