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"&lt;strong&gt;L.A. County District Attorney &lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/person/steve-cooley/\"&gt;Steve Cooley&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; -- whose office will soon decide the fate of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/person/oksana-grigorieva/\"&gt;Oksana Grigorieva&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/person/mel-gibson/\"&gt;Mel Gibson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; -- attended 2 fundraisers on his own behalf at the home of the lawyer who negotiated Oksana's $15 million settlement ... which is the core of the extortion investigation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2011/03/02/0301-steve-george-ex-credit.jpg\" alt=\"0301-steve_george_EX\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;TMZ has learned &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/person/eric-george/\"&gt;Eric George&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, a prominent Beverly Hills civil lawyer, hosted both campaign fundraisers last year, while the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was conducting its investigation.&amp;#160; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And documents reveal ... George contributed more than $8,000 to Cooley in 2010 ...&amp;#160; of that, George contributed $1,992 in August ... while the Sheriff's investigation of Oksana was going full bore ... we do know, however, George has had a long-standing friendship with Cooley and has made contributions to him in the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As TMZ first reported, George negotiated a &lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2010/07/19/oksana-grigorieva-mel-gibson-confidential-agreement-15-million-extortion-mediation-audio-tapes-evidence/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;$15 million package&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; for Oksana during her mediation in May, 2010.&amp;#160; Law enforcement sources tell us ... Sheriff's investigators believe there's \"strong evidence \" that Oksana extorted Mel by threatening to release the explosive tapes unless she got the money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;TMZ broke the story that the D.A.'s office disagrees with Sheriff's investigators and has all but decided &lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2011/02/28/mel-gibson-chraged-domestic-violence-district-attorney-oksana-grigorieva-not-charged-extortion-slap-hit-battery-misdemeanor-felony/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;not to prosecute Oksana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, but we're told Mel Gibson will be charged with misdemeanor domestic violence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And we've learned ... Cooley has been involved -- holding a meeting in his office in December to review the case, though a D.A. spokesperson says no decisions were made during that meeting. &lt;br /&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;br /&gt;There is grousing among some people in law enforcement -- especially in the Sheriff's Department -- that Cooley should have completely removed himself from the decision-making process given the fundraisers and contributions from George.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;George had no comment to TMZ, but a Sheriff's spokesperson has told us the only person under investigation in the extortion matter is Oksana.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although sources tell us the die has already been cast, a D.A. spokesperson tells TMZ ... prosecutors will make a filing decision \"very soon\" and Cooley likely will not participate -- because he's about to go on a long-standing, out-of-town vacation for a week and a half.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The spokesperson would not say whether Cooley would make the filing decision if he's back in town when his deputies make their recommendation. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- relatedlinks --&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2011/03/02/oksana-grigorieva-eric-george-steve-cooley-15-million-fundraiser-extortion-investigation-attorney-court-mel-gibson-da-la-county-sheriffs-department/6/>