John Travolta Takes to The Stand in Extortion Trial
Posted by Adam
John Travolta took to the stand at the at the Bahamas courthouse Wednesday where he testified in the extortion over his son’s death.
The actor described how he helped a nanny perform CPR on 16-year-old Jett, who died earlier this year.
“Jeff [Kathrein], the other nanny, was doing some compressions. I was doing the breathing,” said the actor, whose son was in the downstairs bedroom of their luxury holiday home in Old Bahamas Bay.
Paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and his attorney, former Bahamian Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, are accused of conspiring to extort $25 million from Travolta for a document relating to Jett’s treatment. The pair have pleaded not guilty and are out on bond.
On Tuesday morning, prosecutors made their opening statement to the nine-member jury. You can read about that here.
The Grease star also testified that his son had a history of seizures and –- for the first time — publicly admitted that Jett suffered from autism.
“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.”
On the morning of his son’s death, Travolta said he was awakened by nanny Eli Wheaton. “He was pounding on the door upstairs where we were sleeping,” said the actor, who then quickly ran downstairs to find people already trying to save his son.
“I took the place of the woman who was doing CPR. She was an employee of Old Bahama Bay who I recognized as such,” he said.
John’s wife, Kelly Preston, was in the courtroom as he testified.
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