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Repeat impaired-driving offenders have subtle deficits in their decision-making abilities that may not be detected through conventional tests, says a new study.

Researchers assessed 34 male, second-time DUI (driving under the influence) offenders enrolled in a rehabilitation program and a control group of 31 healthy, non-offenders matched for age, education, and alcohol use.

All the participants underwent psychiatric assessments ad conventional neuropsychological testing, including the the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), to help assess personality patterns.

The IGT, Kasar explained, is used in many studies investigating alcohol problems because it simulates real-life decision-making.

“We found that second-time DUI offenders have a poorer performance on the IGT test than their matched counterparts,” Muzaffer Kasar, a resident in psychiatry at the Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, said in a journal news release.

In contrast, he and colleague David J. Nutt, a professor of psychiatry at Imperial College London in the U.K., found no differences between the repeat DUI offenders and the control group on conventional neuropsychological testing and temperament and character testing (TCI) scores.

“These findings suggest that second-time DUI offenders do not suffer from motor impulsiveness — that is, a lack of impulse control in ‘here and now’ situations,” Nutt said. Instead, he explained, “they suffer from cognitive impulsiveness, which depends on associating negative experiences with possible negative consequences.”

In other words, “there are brain reasons for why people make poor choices regarding DUI,” he added.

The researchers urged that such testing be expanded for people convicted of DUI, which they noted accounted for 40 percent of the fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States. In addition, they said, 33 percent of the DUI drivers were recidivists, or repeat offenders.

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The Sheriff’s Deputy who arrested Mel Gibson in the infamous 2006 DUI incident is suing Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, claiming he has been subject to repeated disciplinary action and overlooked for promotions since complaining that the actor received preferential treatment from police, People reports. Sheriff’s Deputy James Mee is asking for an undisclosed sum in a lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles that alleges discrimination and harassment and states that he has been singled out in a four-year investigation into who leaked the confidential arrest report to TMZ.

The suit claims that Mee, who is Jewish, was asked by superiors to delete portions of his report, “effectively participating in covering up the anti-Semitic posture of Mr. Gibson.” Gibson allegedly spewed a string of anti-Semitic statements on the night in question. The lawsuit also alleges that Gibson is a close friend of Sheriff Lee Baca and other top officials.

“My client is being retaliated against because he is a Jewish deputy,” Mee’s lawyer Etan Z. Lorant told People. “He was the most logical person for the police to investigate, but they didn’t look into any other deputies. They started with him and ended with him, even though other deputies had access to the report. They should’ve kept investigating.”

The lawsuit states that no charges were ever filed against Mee and that the case has been filed as “unresolved.”

“We categorically deny this lawsuit,” Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore told People. “This has nothing to do with ethnicity. What the sheriff’s department did was launch an investigation because someone was releasing confidential documents, which is a crime. We look forward to telling the whole story in this case.”

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