NASSAU — A Bahamian Supreme Court judge has declared a mistrial in the case of two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta following the tragic January death of his son.
Supreme Court Judge Anita Allen declared the mistrial late Wednesday because of juror misconduct following an announcement from a local politician that one of the defendants had been acquitted – before the jurors came back with their verdict, Reuters reports.
Allen did not set a date for a new trial and it remains unclear if the case will ever be retried.
Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of the actor and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, died on Jan. 2 after suffering a seizure at his family’s vacation home on Grand Bahama island. Paramedic Tarino Lightbourn, one of the first people to arrive on the scene the day of the fatal seizure, and Pleasant Bridgewater, a former Bahamian senator, have been accused of demanding money from Travolta in exchange for not publicizing a document involving his son’s treatment. The form in question would have released emergency responders from liability if the family refused an ambulance, a situation that never transpired.
Travolta testified during the five-week trial that he had tried frantically to save his son by performing CPR with the assistance of a nanny. The “Grease” star also revealed that his only son was autistic, a developmental disorder that is frequently accompanied by seizures.
“My son was autistic and he suffered from seizure disorder every 5 to 10 days,” Travolta told the court. “He would suffer a seizure that would last 45 seconds to a minute and sleep for 12 hours.”
Michael Ossi, one of Travolta’s attorneys, told Reuters that he was disappointed in the retrial decision and that he would continue to fight for justice.
“We are fully cooperating with the prosecution,” he said. “We are committed to seeing this through. … Whatever the prosecution asks us to do is exactly what we will do.”
