Comparing the attempted extortion trial of ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne to the absurdity of Alice's trial in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Ad-ventures in Wonderland, Light-bourne's attorney Carlson Shurland yesterday emphatically asked a Supreme Court jury, "where's the evidence?" against his client. "The facts will show, will demonstrate unequivocally that Tarino Lightbourne never committed a crime and should be acquitted of the charges," Shurland said. "Tarino Lightbourne was manoeuvred, was cornered, and he is a victim." Lightbourne and former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater are ...

In his final submissions in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne yesterday, Chief Prosecutor Bernard Turner said that Bridgewater was not set up as she has claimed, but she knew exactly what she was doing when she and Lightbourne tried to extort $25 million from American actor John Travolta earlier this year. "Up to the bitter end there was no distancing herself from this plan," said Turner, referencing Bridgewater's statement during a videotaped ...

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and daughter Suri reunited with John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston – plus over 4000 other Scientologists – at a massive party in England on Oct. 16, Usmagazine.com has confirmed. The stars were surprise guests at the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists held at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinsted, West Sussex. During nearly two hours of speeches, Cruise, 47, briefly addressed the rapturous, fist-pumping crowd: "Because we never took our eyes off the ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: An emotional Pleasant Bridgewater yesterday held back tears as she professed her innocence and claimed she was the victim of a set-up by people she trusted, including PLP Senate leader Allyson Maynard-Gibson, who she said told a lie on the witness stand. Bridgewater gave an unsworn statement to the jury from the bar as the defense began submissions in her attempted extortion trial in the Supreme Court. "I maintain my innocence today," ...

By JUAN McCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: Proceedings in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne experienced another delay yesterday as Senior Justice Anita Allen heard legal submissions from attorneys in the matter. The Nassau Guardian understands that defense attorneys Murrio Ducille and Carlson Shurland have been presenting 'no case to answer' submissions to Justice Allen since Thursday. It is also understood that Ducille, who represents Bridgewater, completed his submissions last week. ...

[Reproduced here with express permission of author Paul Krassner. Thank you!] What I really wanted to do was publish something that would top “The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book.” I had observed a disturbing element being imposed upon the counterculture — various groups all trying to rip off the search for consciousness — and I felt challenged to write a satirical piece about this phenomenon. Scientology was one of the scariest of these organizations, if only because its ...

It was a twisted scheme playing on a broken dad's unbearable grief. A blackmailing medic and his brazen lawyer threatened to tell the world John Travolta "intentionally killed" his son unless they got $25 million in hush money, the star's lawyer testified Thursday. Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne planned to make public a routine waiver Travolta signed initially refusing local medical treatment after his autistic son, Jett, 16, suffered a massive seizure in the family's Bahamas resort villa. The actor had considered flying ...

PLP SENATOR Allyson Maynard-Gibson testified yesterday that she consented to police tapping her office telephone to record any conversation she had with former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater. Mrs Maynard-Gibson, managing partner in the law firm Gibson and Co, Shirley Street, which represents Hollywood celebrity John Travolta, 55, said yesterday that she went to Freeport, Grand Bahama on January 14 to speak with Bridgewater. According to Mrs Maynard-Gibson during a meeting in Bridgewater's law office, Bridgewater told her that her client Tarino Lightbourne ...

On Jan. 19, Pleasant Bridgewater, who had been a Bahamian senator and well-respected member of the Progressive Liberal Party at the time, met with John Travolta's attorney to iron out payment for a document regarding medical treatment for the actor's son on the day he died. Three days later, Bridgewater was under arrest for extortion and, according to a police report, admitted to the Bahamian authorities that she had destroyed a copy of the document in question – a "Refusal of ...

The actor’s public acknowledgement that his son, who died in January, was autistic has former Scientologists convinced that he will leave the church—which they say has little tolerance for chronic conditions. When John Travolta took the witness stand last week and testified that his late son, Jett, was autistic, it came as a grim relief to some former Scientologists. “Wasn’t that amazing?” said a fallen-away church member after Travolta appeared in an extortion case that followed the death of his 16-year-old ...

Lawyer for actor seen negotiating with two defendants in Bahamas trial Is it the smoking gun? The trial of two defendants accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta in return for handing over a document relating to the death of the star's 16-year-old son, Jett, continued in the Bahamas Friday. Meanwhile, PEOPLE has watched videotape of conversations recorded by the Royal Bahamas Police between Travolta's attorney and the two defendants — paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and his lawyer, Pleasant ...

John Travolta told yesterday of his desperate attempts to save his dying son after he suffered a seizure at their holiday home in the Bahamas — and acknowledged publicly for the first time that the boy had suffered from autism. Accompanied by his actress wife, Kelly Preston, the Grease star appeared in a court in Nassau to recall the horrifying moment that a male nanny, Eli Wheaton, came pounding on their bedroom door to rouse them from their sleep on January ...

(CBS/ AP) John Travolta has admitted for the first time his son Jett had autism. Travolta made the admission about his son in the Bahamas as he testified against two men accused of trying to blackmail him with private information about his son's rescue effort. Jett died in January from a seizure. CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella said Travolta testified in a Nassau courtroom that Jett suffered a seizure every five to ten days – each lasting from 45 seconds to ...

NASSAU, Bahamas – A jury was selected Monday for a trial that could see John Travolta take the stand against two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star following his son's death in the Bahamas. Travolta is on a list of 14 witnesses against the defendants — a former Bahamas senator and an ambulance driver — who allegedly threatened to release a document related to the treatment of his chronically ill son Jett. His testimony would ...

The Church of Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by pulp science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and it's been run by his successor, David Miscavige, since 1987. But for the past year or so the public face of Scientology has been a man named Tommy Davis. Son of Hollywood actress (and longtime Scientologist) Anne Archer, Davis has a stylish mop coif and boyish (not to say Tom Cruise-ish) good looks that have been put before the media's cameras every time ...

Visit any neighborhood in the Black community and you're bound to find a church on nearly every city block. When it comes to faith-based communities, African Americans are believed to be one of the most religious and spiritual especially those who practice Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, or Judaism. There are even some Buddhists, thanks in part to iconic celebrity, Tina Turner, who introduced Black folk to the religion in her autobiography, "What's Love Got to Do With It." But, when it comes ...