UPDATE: The high-powered Jewish Hollywood figure whom Oksana says Mel threatened is reportedly TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin. TMZ reports that earlier this week Oksana's rep told Harvey that Mel had told Oksana he was plotting to kill him.
Oksana claimed that Mel was angry TMZ had broken the story of his 2006 anti-Semitic rant, had Harvey followed to the gym at 4 a.m. and planned to have him kidnapped and left in the desert to die with broken kneecaps.
Her story doesn't check out. TMZ reports:
We checked the "kneecap" story out and determined it was false. For starters, Oksana had the wrong gym. More telling ... Oksana never mentioned a word of this to any of her lawyers while she tried negotiating a $15 million package in May during the mediation, using the tapes as her secret weapon. One person involved in the mediation laughed, saying Oksana brought out every piece of ammunition imaginable to score a financial package, so why was this story mysteriously absent?
Oksana claims to have told the Sheriff's Department the story. It seems deputies took it so seriously ... they never even contacted Harvey to give him a heads up that someone wanted him dead ... allegedly.
Sheriff's Department spokesperson Steve Whitmore tells TMZ, "We categorically deny that any such information was ever given to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department."
PREVIOUSLY: One more example of Mel Gibson hate speech: The Oscar-winner hurled an anti-Semitic threat about a high-profile Hollywood figure he believed publicly humiliated him, Oksana Grigorieva reportedly told authorities.
"Oksana says Mel told her, 'I want Jew blood on my hands,' and said he wanted the person taken to the desert, stripped naked, knee capped and left in the heat," a source close to the investigation told Radaronline.com.
Mel hired a team of private investigators in 2009 to follow the Jewish Hollywood figure, and Oksana claimed she told authorities about it because she believes he is capable of having her followed or harmed.
"Oksana recalled that she was initially skeptical that Mel could have hired someone to follow this person, but she said Mel revealed in great detail what his investigators had observed from the surveillance," the source told Radar.
Meanwhile TMZ reports that Oksana had a civil lawsuit against Mel ready to file back in May, in the event he failed to negotiate a fair financial and custody agreement. The drafted lawsuit alleged assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The parties initially agreed to a $15 million settlement, but Oksana backed out because, she claims, the mediation agreement included unsupervised visitation for Mel of their baby daughter Lucia.
Earlier this week Mel's lawyers requested access to Oksana's computer, which could provide evidence she tried to extort him or leaked the tapes herself, TMZ reports. The judge ruled that an independent, court-appointed expert could have limited access.