A little Background
Last week law enforcement authorities in The Bahamas arrested three people who were allegedly involved in a plot to extort $25 million dollars from Hollywood actor John Travolta. These extortionists reportedly threatened to publish pictures related to the death of Travolta’s son, Jett (or perhaps related to Travolta’s suspiciously intimate relationship with Jett’s male nanny) unless Travolta paid them $25 million.
Meanwhile, in addition to our sympathy for the emotional distress this despicable act caused the Travolta family, my fellow Bahamians felt especially betrayed by who the alleged perpetrators turned out to be.
After all, they were not only Bahamians but included two members of Parliament: namely Tarino Lightbourne, the ambulance driver who rushed Travolta’s dying son to hospital, Senator Pleasant Bridgewater, Obie Wilchombe MP (right), a former Minister of Tourism and self-proclaimed close friend of Trovalta.
Then late on Friday, the police released Obie without charge (pending further investigation), released Pleasant on bail after charging her with extortion (she then had the decency to resign from the Senate), and kept Tarino behind bars (presumably because he could not make bail).
This prompted me to write the following in an update on Saturday:
… If the police don’t have [Obie] on tape saying things (or acting) in furtherance of this plot, he will never be charged. After all, nobody in The Bahamas (i.e., no jury) will ever believe Pleasant’s word over his… [However], if what was caught on tape was sufficient to charge Pleasant, one presumes it would have been sufficient to charge Obie as well….
For the full text of my original commentary on this sensational story, click here.
Now my final word
Obie and Pleasant insist, with indignation, that this is all a misunderstanding, and both have pointed the finger at Tarino as the “one single individual” who they were trying to prevent from extorting Travolta and “embarrassing our country.”
But if this was truly their motivation, I challenge them to answer the following:
When you got word that Tarino was trying to perpetrate this outrageous extortion, why didn’t you report it to the Bahamian police instead of rushing to do “the noble thing by giving Travolta’s people a heads up”?
After all, even in a panic, any half wit could have figured out that it would be far better for Travolta and for the country to either talk sense into Tarino or have the police arrest him immediately.
Therefore, I can conceive of no innocent reason for Obie to contact Travolta; except of course to seize an opening to plant his (brown) nose even further up his celebrity friend’s ass.
Nevertheless, I urge my fellow Bahamians to allow the police to complete their investigations and reserve judgment until those charged in this case have a fair trial.
Related commentaries:
Bahamian pols arrested in Travolta extortion plot
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