The Passion of the Christ made Mel Gibson a darling of the fundamentalist Catholics. Trouble is, the film was quite popular among more mainstream Catholics and other Christians, and this gave the fundamentalists more strength and credibility.
This movie was a big deal in the Catholic Church in the US, and it made us left-of-center Catholics very uneasy.
I'm hoping Mel Gibson's current "fall from grace" will destroy his credibility among Catholics, and take the fundamentalists down a rung or two. They've become frighteningly powerful.

I wouldn't be too quick to charge the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department* with favoritism in editing the report. I've read the law enforcement copies hundreds of California DUI (driving under the influence) reports, which are longer than the one-page cover sheet that's released to the press. The reports are usually devoid of juicy details - the main things established are the blood-alcohol content and any physically violent conduct. The substance of what Gibson said while drunk is pertinent to us who wonder whether he's an anti-Semite, but it has little to do with the information needed to determine whether he is guilty of drunk driving and resisting arrest.
I was investigating people for law enforcement jobs and other sensitive government positions. If the person had made racist remarks when arrested for drunk driving, it certainly would have been pertinent to my investigation - but not to the police investigation.
It's also very unlikely that Mel Gibson will be able to "get a slick lawyer to get him off." Law enforcment authorities in Los Angeles aren't particularly impressed by celebrities - but then again, they also aren't particularly impressed by tabloid reporters competing to get information to smear celebrities.
-Joe Offer-

*I believe the Los Angeles County sheriff still provides law enforcement services to Malibu. Last time I worked there was 1999, and Malibu did not have its own police department at that time.