A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy was exonerated after the County of Los Angeles Civil Service Commission ruled Wednesday that he was wrongly terminated.

The commission sided with the hearing officer who ruled that former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy James Mee was wrongfully terminated for his handling of the pursuit of a vehicle that failed to yield to a traffic stop in Santa Clarita, according to the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission’s hearing records.

Photo courtesy of KHTS

In its letter of discharge, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department stated that Mee improperly pursued the vehicle in question, made false and/or misleading statements to his supervisor regarding his involvement in the pursuit and inaccurately reported his involvement in the crime report.

The Commission’s findings, however, found that Mee did not engage in an active pursuit of the speeding Nissan.

Therefore, Mee did not make false or misleading statements to his supervisors, nor did he make false statements in his initial and supplementary reports, according to the commission.

On June 17, 2011 Mee followed a Nissan sports car that was previously stopped in the middle of the road, impeding traffic on 8th Avenue in Newhall.

After the suspect vehicle ran a red light on the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Newhall Avenue, Mee turned on the yelp siren and red lights in an attempt to make a traffic stop, according to the commission’s records.

The driver of the vehicle failed to yield to Mee and increased the Nissan sports car’s speed to an excess of 140 miles per hour, while Mee followed at approximately 80 miles per hour.

About 90 seconds after Mee first attempted to pull the vehicle over, the Nissan sports car crashed into a Chevron gas station on the corner of Newhall Avenue and Sierra Highway, causing a fire and seriously injuring the driver and passenger.

Mee’s attorney, Richard A. Shinee, argued that the Sheriff Department’s termination of Mee stemmed from Mee’s arrest of actor Mel Gibson in 2006.

Shinee argued that the department terminated Mee because they alleged that Mee leaked the recording of the actor’s anti-semitic rant to TMZ.

“We’ve argued all along that the department retaliated against him because they believe that he leaked that information,” said Shinee.