AP Images, Splashnews.com

We spoke to a top defense attorney, Mark Geragos, who told us that if a judge rules that Mel’s audio rants have been edited in any way, and if Oksana leaked these tapes to the press, then she could be in more trouble than Mel!

Mel Gibson may very well be able to build his own case against his ex-girlfriend and mother of their child, Oksana Girgorieva. Five audio files have been leaked to RadarOnline but they may all be thrown out in court! HollywoodLife.com spoke to LA-based criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, most famous for representing Michael Jackson and Chris Brown, and he tells us that if the judge finds out the tapes were edited, and leaked, that Oksana could have implicated herself, and Mel might be able to walk away from all of his legal troubles right away.

“The case could still be prosecuted on her testimony alone although her credibility would be diminished if there were findings that the tapes were manipulated,” says Mark. “One of the first things the judge will do is see if the audio files have been tampered with. If they’ve been tampered with … if they can show the tapes have been edited, the tapes would be inadmissible and can’t be used against Mel.”

HollywoodLife.com confirmed  with two top forensic experts on July 14, that the leaked rants most definitely have been tampered with.

“The audio files were most certainly edited intentionally and the forensic terminology for this, is tampering,” says CEO of Creative Forensic Services, Arlo West. “The edits that I found would have been done post-recording and are clearly done to redact dialog — which means to intentionally remove words. I can tell there are gaps and edits in several ways by using waveform analysis and zero crossing analysis. These are most certainly digital recordings so there is no tape involved.”

Mel and Oksana are expected to appear in court today, July 15, for a custody hearing due to possible endangerment of their 8-month-old daugher Lucia. RadarOnline reports that Oksana has photos that prove that Mel hit and bruised their 2-month-old daughter after he punched out Oksana’s  two front teeth. But Geragos reveals that if the judge finds out the tapes have been edited then the photos might be inadmissible as well.

“Oksana’s credibility will be called into question,” explains Geragos. “The judge will be thinking that if she edited the tapes then she could have doctored the photos.”

The second major issue here is that the tapes were leaked and Geragos says that if the tapes were leaked after they were sealed then Oksana could have huge legal problems.

“My understanding is that the tapes are under seal,” says Mark. “And they were sealed before they were leaked to RadarOnline. If they were already ordered under seal then that would put now Oksana in the middle of a contempt hearing.”

Hollywoodlife has also revealed to you that the tapes were professionally made for distribution, and that Oksana planned to tape Mel and had help doing so..

“In the state of California there is an exception for taping someone if you are trying to gather evidence for kidnapping, bribery, force, violence etc,” says Geragos. “But it the tapes have been spliced, diced, then that exception will not be allowed.”

-Chloe Melas