Lightbourne Talks About The Death Of Jett Travolta
John Travolta
Although John Travolta has decided to end the trial and stop the whole issue related to the death of his teenage son, Jett, the story isn’t over yet, although the event took place about 18 months ago.
Jett died last year in the holiday home of the family in Bahamas. The 16 years old boy suffered a seizure and hit his head while falling on the bath in January 2009. The whole thing happened while John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston were celebrating the New Year with some friends in Bahamas house reception, in the conditions in which the boy needed constant supervision. This is actually the fact that made this whole case controversial.
And the controversial aspect of the case was actually amplified by the fact that Travolta family is part of the Scientology religious cult, which is known to not recognize medical conditions such as autism. This raised the question whether the boy has been receiving the proper treatment or not. However, there were no evidences of the fact that Jett parents refused medical treatment for their child.
Anyway, this is not the only part of this situation which is debated. In fact, after Jett’s death Travolta claims that he had been harassed. He said that he was the victim of an attempt of $25 million extortion coming from one of the paramedics called to the scene, Tarino Lightbourne, and his lawyer Pleasant Bridgewater. The man said that Travolta and his family were so preoccupied with the conditions in which Jett died that they refused to take the child to the nearest hospital and they decided to put him on a private plane to Florida. This was actually the motive of the extortion, Lightbourne claiming the money for the return of a paper signed by John Travolta which proved the star didn’t wanted the child to be taken to the local hospital. Lightbourne pleaded not guilty in the trial.
Although the trial took place, the judge ordered a retrial because someone told on TV that the defendants had been found not guilty before the verdict was pronounced in court. So, when there was only one month left before the new trial was supposed to being, Travolta suddenly decided to drop all charges against the two, motivating that the pain was to big and they just didn’t wanted to continue, although the trial that lasted for months cost the star and his family millions of dollars. “The long-pending status of this matter continued to take a heavy emotional toll on my family, causing us to conclude that it was finally time to put this matter behind us,” Travolta said in an official statement. So, the trial won’t take place any longer and the charges were dropped.
However, it seems that if Travolta was looking for peace, he won’t get it because the former paramedic Tarino Lightbourne, told in an interview for the Daily Mail that he has no intentions to let things go. “I’m very sorry that John Travolta lost his son, of course, and I’ve always been a huge fan of his,” he said. “I have been paraded as a common criminal and thrown in jail and I have lost my job,” the man added. “The truth is I wish now that the trial had gone ahead so that I could clear my name and get my dignity back,” Tarino Lightbourne told the Daily Mail.
However, the man decided to tell all the facts, as he knows them, or better said his version of the story in the attempt to clear his name, at least in the media, if in court, according to him, he didn’t get that opportunity.
He stated the story by telling that the one who found the 16 years old boy in the bathroom on January 2 was the family maid, but the emergency services were called only 15 minutes later. When he arrived at the scene, the boy was lying naked, covered with a towel on the floor. There was also a doctor in the family guests at the party who told the paramedics that the boy suffered from a seizure and he hit his head while falling. Lightbourne recalls asking how much time passed since the boy has fallen, and the doctor said there were only a few minutes, but the body signs indicated that there were about three hours since the boy had fallen. “With my back turned to the other people in the room, I whispered to the doctor: “This boy is dead. Why don’t you call it”, Lightbourne told that doctor, the Daily Mail wore. And his response was very curious. “I know — just continue with CPR” he said and where is a doctor present, paramedics have to do what he says, and they did.
“Gentlemen, do we have an agreement,” the doctor continued. “We can make a lot of money out of this. Everybody remain quiet and we can make a lot of money.” According to him, the whole point of this action was that everybody there believed that the boy had been dead for hours and to cover it up and prove that the family wasn’t guilty with anything, they will give everyone money to keep their mouth shot.
Why did the boy died and in which conditions was never investigated. Lightbourne says that only an autopsy could have established for sure what happened, but, no one asked for one and if has been made one, the results were never public. But, in the boy’s condition, he needed constant supervision. However, Lightbourne suspects that no one checked him up for hours and he stayed there a while before someone found him. If this is the case, the parents could have been accused with lack of care for the child. And that is why everything happened so fast and the family asked for the body to be taken to Florida and not to the hospital as the protocol required.
Lightbourne told the Daily Mail that he didn’t knew at the beginnings that he was dealing with John Travolta and his family. “I explained that we couldn’t put his son on the plane, but that if he wished to sign what we call a patient refusal form we would leave,” he said. Travolta signed in the presence of a police inspector, Andrew Wells, the document that said he refuses to let the ambulance take the child. However, after that Travolta changed his decision and agreed for the child to be taken to the hospital.
However, these facts don’t clear anything regarding the boy’s death or if Lightbourne tried to make some money out of it. He says that he had taken home a copy of the document signed by Travolta because he is a fan and wanted the star’s signature. He claims that he was the one called on the phone by Travolta’s attorney who offered him one million in the exchange of the document. They set up a meeting and Lightbourne was filmed when negotiating for money, tape that was presented to the jury.
Is he saying the truth? Who do you believe? And either way, why did Travolta dropped the charges? Was he afraid that we will lose? Or it was just too much pain for the family? Or were they scared that something else will come out? And if this is the case, why did he sue Lightbourne in the first place? If there will ever be found out the truth regarding this case or not, is about to see, but Travolta who definitely loved his son will remain with a shadow on his name after the scandal. However, he will be flying Oprah and her audience in Australia for the famous show to be shot there.
