Celebrity Mound

Bahamas paramedic Tarino Lightbourne was formally charged Monday in an alleged plot to extort $25 million from John Travolta.

Lightbourne, 47, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to extort and conspiracy to extort from Travolta after the death of the actor’s 16-year-old son, Jett, according to Bahamian Magistrate Carolita Bethel.

So far, details of the alleged plot have not been made public. However, prosecutor Bernard Turner says police are looking for a “certain document” and believe they may not find it if Lightbourne is released, according to the Associated Press.

Lightbourne was the first paramedic to arrive on the scene when Jett Travolta had a seizure Jan. 2. The son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston died that morning at a nearby hospital. He remains in custody in Nassau awaiting a Wednesday bond hearing.

Two others were detained in connection with the alleged plot: attorney Pleasant Bridgewater, who resigned from the Bahamian senate as a result of the scandal, was charged with “conspiracy to extort.” Bridgewater has denied the charges and was released on $40,000 bail Friday. She is slated to be arraigned on Wednesday.

Former Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchombe, a close friend of the Travolta family, was arrested Friday and released without being charged.

“Wilchcombe was released pending further investigation,” according to the Acting Commissioner of the Royal Bahamian Police, Reginald Ferguson.

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Weeks after losing his son, John Travolta and his family are now the victims of an extortion bid.

Exact details of the plot have yet to be made public, but the attempt to get money from the Travoltas is connected with the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, according to TMZ.com. The extortionists are reportedly demanding $20 million.

Police in the Bahamas have now launched an investigation, Bahamian Parliament member Obie Wilchcombe has confirmed to Us Weekly.

Today it emerged that two men in the Bahamas, including a local politician from Grand Bahama and another man believed to be connected to the ambulance service, are now being quizzed by local authorities over the allegations.

The Bahamas’ largest Web site, Bahamasb2b.com, reports that one of the paramedics who responded to the emergency call took a picture, using his cell phone, as Jett Travolta lay dying.

The shot is said to show the actor’s son in the back of the ambulance which took him to hospital.

The Bahamian politician reportedly contacted Travolta on behalf of the medical worker, threatening to sell the picture to U.S. celebrity tabloids, such as the National Enquirer, if their multi-million dollar demand is ignored.

News of the investigation comes as Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s government announced a major crackdown on corruption.

It aims to get rid of more than a dozen top-levels cops from the country’s police force. The development is seen as one of the most important nation-building moves in years.

“A number of senior officers were seen today,” Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest told the local press Wednesday.

“They were told that the force was being reorganized and that they weren’t going to be a part of that and that they had an option of voluntarily retiring if they wished. But we intend by the end of this week to reorganize the senior command of the Royal Bahamas Police.”

Wilchcombe, meanwhile, says he was approached about the extortion plot early last week and passed along the information to Travolta’s lawyers.

“The irony was that the Travolta family just sent a letter of gratitude – it happened that afternoon,” said Wilchcombe, referring to a Jan. 12 statement issued by a rep for the family thanking the people of the Bahamas for their support.

“I thought it was a despicable act,” Wilchcombe said. “One person should not destroy the character of the country.”

Jett died of a seizure disorder on Jan. 2, while staying at the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas.

Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston traveled in the ambulance to the hospital and the teenager was pronounced dead at the hospital.

His cause of death after an autopsy was reportedly listed as “seizure,” but the death certificate has never been made public.

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This small central Florida town is about as far from Hollywood as you can get. Maybe that’s why actor John Travolta moved his family here.

The town square features a fondue restaurant, the social scene revolves around ranchers’ soirees and horse riding is one of the main pastimes. Mobile home parks, peanut farms and moss-covered oak trees dot the landscape. There is little pretension or glitz.

Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston seem to fit in: They appeared on the cover of this month’s Ocala Style magazine with big smiles, wearing jeans and sweaters.

Now, with the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, this is where they have come to grieve. On Monday night – four days after Jett was found unconscious in the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas – Travolta and Preston flew back to Ocala.

The city is welcoming them quietly and respectfully.

Mayor Randy Ewers said the city sent the Travolta family condolences and would give them space and privacy.

“They’re fantastic people, really family oriented,” Ewers said. “We want to respect their privacy as much as possible.”

Doctors in the Bahamas performed an autopsy on Jett on Monday but did not release results. A Bahamas undertaker said the teen’s death certificate had “seizure” as the cause of death. The teen had a history of seizures; his body was cremated Monday and flown to the U.S. the same night.

A memorial service for Jett will be held Thursday for family and close friends in Ocala, his publicist said.

The Travoltas, who have been together since 1991, bought their unusual $8 million property in Ocala in 2003. The reason had nothing to do with the area’s famed thoroughbred horse farms: Travolta, an avid pilot, was looking for a home where he could fly his many planes, including a Boeing 707 airliner, right to his front door.

The estate, located in a subdivision that boasts the largest private residential runway in the country, was featured on the cover of Architectural Digest in 2004. The style was inspired by Morris Lapidus, the architect of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen, designer of Washington Dulles International Airport.

“If I can look out the bedroom and see the planes, I am happy,” Travolta told The Associated Press last year.

His eldest son, Jett, and daughter, Ella, played happily around the mid-century compound.

“We’ve got a big pool, a slide and a golf course,” Preston told Architectural Digest. “We’re a family who likes to play a lot.”

And although that family traveled often for work – Travolta’s latest movie, “Bolt,” in which he does the voice for an animated dog, was just released – they also spent time in Ocala and the even smaller village of Anthony, which is right down the street from their home.

“I love rubbing elbows with life and real people,” Travolta, 54, once told the local newspaper, the Star-Banner. “I don’t like living in ivory towers. I want to enjoy life the way everybody else does.”

“He’s just, I don’t know, a normal person,” said Barbara Pound, a waitress at the Saddle Rack Cafe. She served him his favorite breakfast – a $6.49 western omelet – on a handful of occasions. “Nobody bothers him here. We let him have his peace.”

Travolta once brought his son into the cafe and the boy “wouldn’t stop smiling,” said manager Jackie Gomillion.

Others have spotted Travolta and his family cruising around in his classic Thunderbird or just shopping at the Gap in the local mall. Twice, Travolta hosted charity fundraisers around movie premieres at the local movie theater in Ocala where thousands of local fans showed up.

Brent Johnson of Ocala once saw him at the gym at 5:30 a.m.

“I thought to myself, I’m not going to harass him, but he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’” Johnson said. “He asked about my kids and family. I think there’s a sense of pride here in Ocala that someone like that would want to live here.”

John Travolta said Saturday he and his wife Kelly Preston are “heartbroken” over the death of their chronically ill 16-year-old son, who collapsed at the family’s vacation home on Grand Bahama.

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning and he was later pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday, according to Rahming’s police statement.

“We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives,” Travolta and Preston said in their first public statement since Jett’s death.

“Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered,” said a statement posted Sunday on Travolta’s Web site.

“We have received many messages of condolence from around the world and we want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. It has meant so much to us. It is a beautiful reminder of the inherent goodness in the human spirit that gives us hope for a brighter future.”

Preston and Travolta have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome, an illness that leads to inflamed blood vessels in young children. Preston blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine. Others said Jett was prone to seizures.

Michael McDermott, an attorney for the actor, said Sunday that although Jett was last seen Thursday and found the following day, he doesn’t believe that the teen was in the bathroom for a substantial amount of time.

“The police left the impression that the boy was unsupervised. No. There were two nannies with him for the entire evening,” McDermott told The Associated Press. “They made it seem like he was sent to the condo and nobody checked in on him until the next morning.”

“(Jett) was spectacularly supervised,” said McDermott, who said he has not had the chance to talk to the two nannies himself.

McDermott said he had no knowledge of Jett’s medical history but “understood he had a history of seizures.” It is unclear whether Jett was taking medication for that.

The Bahamas’ health minister, Dr. Hubert Minnis, has said that a second, U.S.-certified pathologist will fly in at dawn Monday to assist with the teenager’s autopsy.

“I have spoken to (Travolta) and informed him that the government is doing everything it can,” Minnis said Sunday, adding he could not disclose further specifics about the autopsy.

About a dozen security guards and Bahamian police officers patrolled Sunday around the luxury Old Bahama Bay resort community where Travolta and Preston remained inside their home. The white-sand beach in front of the suites was closed.

The couple also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.

Travolta, 54, is trying to finish funeral arrangements and hopes to fly his son’s body to Florida by midweek, McDermott said. Travolta and Preston, 46, have a house in Ocala, Florida.

The Church of Scientology, established in 1945 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has attracted numerous celebrity followers, and among its more famed members is Travolta, who has long been one of Hollywood’s biggest names.