Jury Begins Deliberations On $25m Travolta Extortion Trial

by amyellensoden | October 21, 2009 at 11:40 am

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The jury for Jon Travolta's extortion plot will begin to deliberate today as to whether the two men accused of attempting to extort Travolta for $25 million are guilty or not.

The extortionists, Tarino Lightbourn and Pleasant Bridgewater, are on trail due to events that surrounded Travolta's son Jett's death on January 2nd earlier this year.

The money allegedly was to be paid in return for not making public a document Travolta signed in which he declined to have his 16-year-old son, Jett, transported to a nearby hospital. Lightbourn and Bridgewater have pleaded not guilty.

Travolta refused to comply with their alleged demand for money.

During the Travolta's holiday in the Bahamas last New Years, Travolta's son Jett was found unconscious after a seizure. While Travolta originally intended to drive straight to his private plane to fly Jett to West Palm Beach Hospital in Florida, he and his wife decided en route to go to the nearby hospital in Freeport.

This decision prompted Lightbourn to have Travolta sign a statement that would free the ambulance company from any form of liability. Following his son's death, Travolta received the demand for $25 million in order to keep the signed statement quiet.

The contents of the statement upon closer examination were revealed to be suggesting that Jett's death was intentional and Travolta himself was somehow responsible. Travolta, not having read the statement in full, was unaware of its contents.

Closing arguments wrapped this morning in Nassau and the jury will now begin the process of deliberation.

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