As if it weren’t bad enough to lose a child, now the Travoltas have to deal an alleged extortion plot.
Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne as well as Bahamian Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchombe, and lawyer/Senator Pleasant Bridgewater have all been detained for attempted extortion. Lightbourne drove Jett Travolta to the hospital and has told his story to “Good Morning America” as well as several tabloids. “It was me, him [John], and Jett. I’ll never forget this day. I saw him lean over and hug his son and kiss his son and tell him he loved him and I did everything I could. I saw love in his eyes, I saw love. [John] hugged him, put his arm around him, kissed him on the forehead and the cheek and told him he loved him. He then turned to me and gave me a hug and said you guys did a wonderful job.”
My main problem with this is that medical staff in our country rarely make comments like that to the press and certainly not to tabloids. You could chalk it up to cultural differences between the U.S. and the Bahamas, but I doubt Lightbourne “gave” his story to the tabloids. Usually, when stories like that appear in the tabloids, the person giving the interview is paid, and I am sure handsomely in the case of a highly sensitive, big news item like this.
So, you are probably thinking, “What about the alleged extortion plot?” The details of that are not fully known yet, but Wilchombe says he was merely told by Bridgewater that something was up and conveyed the information to the Travoltas, whom he claims are close friends. But, he says he never asked for money from the family, calling that charge “ridiculous.”
My first thought was it was something like this, if there was indeed an extortion attempt – the three met with the Travoltas and told them that unless they paid them money (it has been said that the extortion was for as much as $25 million dollars), Lightbourne would sell his story to the media.
But, E! sources say that the extortion involved “mystery documents’ that might have embarrassed the Travoltas and left them open to criticism. Aren’t they already under enough criticism by almost everyone?
So far, Wilchcombe has been released pending further investigation and Bridges was released on $40,000 bail. She has also resigned from the Senate. All three maintain their innocence.
What do you think? Even though the Lightbourne hasn’t really said anything derogatory about the Travoltas that I have read, should he have gone public with his story? Should paramedics and medical staff remain mum about a high profile death like this?