In 2006, Mel Gibson ranted and raved when a Los Angeles County deputy stopped the actor for drunk driving.  Mr. Gibson infamously accused the deputy, James Mee, of being Jewish.  Turns out, the actor was correct.  Deputy Mee is Jewish.  The actor sputtered other anti-Jewish diatribes.  "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," Mr. Gibson insisted.  In writing the report of the incident, Deputy included the anti-Jewish rantings.  But, the Sheriff, Lee Baca, was said to be a friend of Mel Gibson.  

Deputy Mee was asked to remove the anti-Jewish slurs from the initial report and, instead, include them in a supplemental report that would not be immediately available to the public.  The deputy resisted.  He included the anti-Jewish ravings to show how drunk the actor was.  He later filed suit claiming he was subjected to retaliation.  He sued for discrimination bsed on his religion and for retaliation.  The deputy claimed he was passed over for promotion

The judge dismissed the retaliation charge last month.  That left charges based on workplace harassment and anti-Jewish discrimination.  Deputy Mee has now settled his claims for $50,000.  See Los Angeles Times report.  Deputy Mee was suspected of leaking the initial police report to the media. 

He never lost his job and still works for the Sheriff.  This is a good settlement for an employee who cannot point to clear job loss.  Being overlooked for promotion is very hard to show. 

The only source of economic loss in a discrimination lawsuit is lost pay and benefits.  Many people think discrimination lawsuits settle for huge amounts.  Not so –  not in the vast majority of cases.  Even in a case with large issues and international publicity, the employee here has settled for a relatively small sum of $50,000.