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Video shown in John Travolta case

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-07 12:02

Jurors in the John Travolta extortion trial have been played videos of the defendants planning the ￡18 million payout plot.

Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne - who treated Travolta's 16-year-old son Jett after the seizure which ultimately killed him in January - and his lawyer Pleasant Bridgewater are seen discussing their alleged demands with Travolta's attorney Michael McDermott in the secretly-taped footage.

McDermott - who was wearing a wire in co-operation with Bahamian police - is seen in a meeting with Lightbourne with Bridgewater on the phone.

McDermott said: "You know what were both doing here, OK?"

Lightbourne nodded and replied: "Yes."

McDermott added: "It's a criminal offence."

Lightbourne said: "Yes."

McDermott replied: "OK. If we get caught, we're both in trouble."

Lightbourne and Bridgewater both deny charges of attempting to extort and conspiring to extort by means of threats.

The footage is being used to show Lightbourne and Bridgewater tried to force Travolta to pay them to stop them releasing a document the actor had signed which said he didn't want Jett taken to a nearby hospital in the Bahamas for treatment.

Travolta, 55, has already testified that Jett was actually taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In the first tape, which was recorded on January 19, Bridgewater discusses Lightbourne's request for money.

In the second, made on the following day, Lightbourne and McDermott are seen trying to make the deal.

McDermott says to Bridgewater: "That's like a pick-up truck full of money."

Bridgewater is seen calling Lightbourne to tell him McDermott has offered ￡156,000, but he turns down the offer.

After offering more money, McDermott became exasperated and said: "If that ain't going to do it for the guy, then to hell with him. We will make sure that he's a pariah in the Islands of the Bahamas, OK? We will make sure that he doesn't go anywhere people don't know who he is. The name of Benedict Arnold will be, you know, pale in comparison with the name of Tarino Lightbourne."

The trial continues.