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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. Subscribe You are here: Home > News > Entertainment > Article Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Entertainment Film Music People Television Arts Industry Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Health Science Special Coverage Video Pictures Your View The Great Debate Blogs Weather Reader Feedback Do More With Reuters RSS Widgets Mobile Podcasts Newsletters Your View Make Reuters My Homepage Partner Services CareerBuilder Affiliate Network Professional Products Support (Customer Zone) Reuters Media Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Bahamas declares mistrial in John Travolta extortion Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:39am EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+] By Neil Hartnell NASSAU (Reuters) - A Bahamian Supreme Court judge declared a mistrial late on Wednesday in the case of two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from Hollywood actor John Travolta, after a political convention was told they had been cleared before the jury returned a verdict. Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen ordered that a retrial be held after a Bahamian politician prematurely announced at his party's annual convention, which was being covered on live television and radio, that the two accused had been cleared. Pleasant Bridgewater, a former member of the Bahamian Senate, and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne had been accused of attempting to extort $25 million from Travolta following the death of his son, Jett, in January. The defendants were alleged to have threatened to give the media a document Travolta had signed, releasing the ambulance driver and his colleagues from any liability for Jett's death after Travolta decided to try to fly his son to Florida for treatment rather than have him taken to a Freeport hospital. The political convention at which the premature announcement was made was being staged by the Progressive Liberal Party, one of the two main Bahamian political parties. Bridgewater is a member of that party. An autopsy determined Jett Travolta died of a seizure during a family vacation at the Old Bahama Bay Resort. Travolta testified during the five-week trial that he had tried frantically to save his son by performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while another visitor at the resort helped with chest compressions and used a defibrillator on Jett, who had been found unresponsive on a bathroom floor. Travolta testified he was told that unless he paid $25 million, the document would be sold to the news media and used to generate stories suggesting he was at fault in his son's death. Jett was autistic and suffered frequent seizures, Travolta testified. Lightbourne and Bridgewater were accused of conspiracy and attempting to extort money from Travolta by means of threats, charges that carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Bridgewater was also accused of abetting extortion. Picewell Forbes, a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) member of parliament, whipped hundreds of supporters attending his party's annual convention into a frenzy after announcing on Wednesday night that "Pleasant is a free woman, PLPs! God is good, PLPs! Pleasant is a free woman! God still reigns PLPs!" The party's convention burst into an impromptu dance to the song, "Oh Happy Day," following Forbes' statement. The nine-member jury had begun deliberations earlier on Wednesday. Twenty minutes before the judge declared a mistrial, the jury foreman indicated the jurors needed more time to reach a verdict. In dismissing them, Allen, the senior justice, expressed concern over possible jury misconduct and whether there had been a premature communication from the jury room. "We are very concerned in the interest of justice that it does not appear that there has been a communication from the jury room. Justice must not only be done, but seen to be done," she told the jury. "I am very, very reluctant to discharge you, but in the interest of justice, having heard the views of counsel, we are concerned," she said. "It leaves the impression that there may have been a communication from the jury room. I am not going to ask if there was or not." Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! Facebook LinkedIn Next Article: Lawyer denies Polanski ready to go to America Also On Reuters Blog: Believers of 2010 GOP majority in "la la land": Dems Analysis: Insider trading wire taps sign of things to come Full Coverage: Reuters Washington Summit 2009 More Entertainment News Lawyer denies Polanski ready to go to America | Video Chris Brown announces tour, Rihanna has new single Horror movie marks MTV's drive into scripted shows Michael Buble still tops on U.S. album chart Former KISS drummer: men get breast cancer too More Entertainment News... More News Pay or be blamed for son's death, Travolta told Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009 04:40pm EDT Pay or be blamed for son's death, Travolta told Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009 04:36pm EDT Editor's Choice Slideshow A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. 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