Mel Gibson Tapes Have Been Edited, Expert Says (inadmissible in court)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AOL: Popeater

By Amber James

Mel Gibson's lawyers claim they have evidence that the explicit, racist tapes Oksana Grigorieva secretly recorded earlier this year were tampered with and edited, which would make them inadmissible in court. To date, five tapes of Gibson screaming threats and obscenities at his ex have been released by RadarOnline.

Arlo E. West, president and CEO of Creative Forensic Services, INC., and one of the nation's leading certified forensic audio and video experts, tells PopEater that the Gibson tapes are altered copies. West, who has listened to all of the tapes, says there are gaps and fading -- which are "red flags" that the recordings have been altered and therefore "cannot be considered accurate." He's also convinced Oksana had professional help to edit the tapes together from a string of conversations.

While there has been speculation about whether or not the tapes are real, RadarOnline is standing by its claims the tapes are authentic. "Numerous top experts who have analyzed tapes for the FBI and CIA, confirm the authenticity of the tapes, as does Oksana's lawyer. Mel can't deny that he said these hateful words, had these brutal arguments and made these threats. The focus remains squarely on these horrible things Mel said and the only question is when will he take accountability for his words and actions?" RadarOnline's David Perel told PopEater in a statement.

West believes these altered tapes will eventually be inadmissible in court. "There are redactions and missing pieces -- obviously things people didn't want others to hear," he analyzes. "It's possible Oksana was sitting in the editing room making sure certain things she said were not present."


Read more: http://www.popeater.com/2010/07/15/mel-gibson-tapes/?icid=main|aim|dl2|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2F2010%2F07%2F15%2Fmel-gibson-tapes%2F

[Orrex]

1. I hear that they cut out the bit where Mel blamed the Irish for the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919

[SpiralHawk]

7. Sticky business, that

[Lil Missy]

2. So, the edited out the part where he admitted to fucking children and small animals?

[LostinVA]

3. HIS expert -- you get the opinion you pay for

And, he didn't have access to the original tapes, but just listened to what was released.

It'll be interesting to see what the judge and independendt experts say.

[WolverineDG]

20. Ding Ding Ding!

My point (further down) exactly. I doubt Radaronline has the original tapes anyway, & those will be the ones that have to be taken to court.

dg

[Freetradesucks]

4. I don't think so

The conversation follows nicely. They are not taken out of context. He is a racist asshole.

[EC]

5. He had to have been like this in his first marriage too,

his first wife didn't put up any fight to be rid of him, when he filed for divorce...I really feel badly for these women and children...especially his first wife, with all those kids, for all those years...

[pepperbear]

6. that goes right up there with "he was cold-reading a script and it got recorded by accident" n/t

[Renew Deal]

8. I guess the parts where he called her a gold-digging cunt whore that deserves a bat to the head

were edited together to make him look bad.

[Yeahyeah]

9. Serenity now,Melvin,serenity now.

[LostinVA]

10. His name is actually Mel!

[Yeahyeah]

11. Well,he sure is having a Mel tdown .Maybe he boxed too many kangaroos.

What happened to all that religious stuff?Didn't he have his own church,10 kids and one wife?I think it's the cigarettes.He should have his brain veins checked.

[LostinVA]

13. lol

[defendandprotect]

15. Perhaps he's been boxing with fanaticism all his life . . . beginning with his father?

Can only imagine it was a brutal, hate filled childhood?

[dkf]

12. I wouldn't doubt that she edited the tapes.

When someone is screaming at you they probably hit a lot of low blows that you don't want anyone to know.

If there are original tapes I'm sure we will hear them all. I hope there is nothing she wants to keep private because she has opened herself up to a full exam.

[LisaL]

14. She denies releasing the tapes.

[dkf]

18. Gawker was bugging her? Wow tell me again where the criminal penalties are?

[LisaL]

21. She doesn't deny she taped it. She denies she gave the tapes

to radar online. Presumably other people had access to these tapes that could have potentially given the tapes to radar online.

[dkf]

23. Yeah so she told someone else to give it to gawker right?

If it was unauthorized it sounds illegal to me yet she isn't doing anything about it.

[blogslut]

24. Radaronline is the site that claims exclusivity for those tapes

Not Gawker. They are merely spreading the story.

[dkf]

34. Whatever. Sounds like she knows where to spread dirt.

[inna]

16. Clearly, those are bits and pieces. *Parts* of conversations. So FUCKING what??

I just *hate* and abhor Gibson at this point, and I rarely use the term "hate".

[Psephos]

27. The issue is over admissibility in court.

If they're edited, they're not a "true copy" and are de facto inadmissible.

[inna]

28. Is "cut-&-pasting" considered "editing"?

[Psephos]

29. Not completely sure what you mean there...

...but as a general rule, no changes to the original order, content, or run length are permissible. The copy and the original must be identical. In the case of a recording, the recording must accurately reflect the actual conversation or event without additions, deletions, or alterations.

[LisaL]

30. The expert was looking at whatever radar online posted.

Clearly the expert doesn't have access to the originals.
No doubt police will be analyzing the original recordings.

[Psephos]

32. Agreed. n/t

[uppityperson]

17. I taped an ex once, taped over old music tapes. Ex had them examined

and they said they'd been "tampered with" since there was music, then conversation, then no break back into music. Ex wanted me to send my tape recorder to the guys who worked on Watergate for further evaluation at a cost of several hundred dollars.

Aside from my admitting I'd taped over old music tapes, and laughing at the Watergate dudes examining my cheap tape player, there was a reason ex is ex.

[WolverineDG]

19. Key words: Mel Gibson's lawyers

what, you expected them to say "Yeah, they're legit. Mel's reporting to San Quentin tomorrow." ???

Keep squirming, Mel. Keep squirming.

dg

[EFerrari]

22. Yep. Can't reseal that can. nt

[LoZoccolo]

25. This is like that "muddying" strategy that the conservatives use.

If you can cast some doubt on the evidence, you don't have to win because you've denied the other party a win. And it doesn't even have to be a reasonable amount of doubt; it just just to be enough so that whoever wants to be on Mel's side can say "well the tapes were edited" and don't have to believe anything they establish, and can convince anyone who disagrees with them that they just aren't listening.

[LisaL]

26. I noticed Mel isn't denying it is him on the tapes.

[one_voice]

31. Stephen Baldwin is on Joy Behar...

doing his best defense of Mel Gibson. He said we need to love, forgive, support and help Mel. He also thinks his (Mel's) girlfriend is setting him up. He says she provoked him to get a certain reaction. Ted Haggard (sp?) also thinks we need to help Mel.

Both are idiots.

:crazy:

[Orrex]

33. I'll forgive Mel after I forgive Stephen for his part in "Scare Tactics"

Ain't gonna happen.

[TommyO]

35. The original tapes would be admissible though.