The extortion trial of two Bahamians charged with attempting to blackmail John Travolta has ended in a mistrial. The judge in the case suspected inappropriate behavior by one of the jurors in the trial during the deliberation process. This means that Travolta and his family will most likely have to go through this process all over again with a new jury.

A mistrial has been declared in the trial of two people accused of attempting to extort millions from actor John Travolta after the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett.

Judge Anita Allen thought someone in the jury had had inappropriate communications outside of the jury room, where jurors had been deliberating for eight hours.

The judge received information that an announcement had been made at a local political rally that one of the defendants had been found not guilty.

Paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and former Bahamian Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, who is also Lightbourn’s attorney, were accused of trying to extort money from Travolta.

Jett Travolta suffered a seizure on January 2 at the family’s vacation home on the island of Grand Bahamas, where the family was spending a New Year’s holiday.

Lightbourn and Bridgewater allegedly tried to get Travolta to pay them $25 million to not make public a medical document, declining to have Jett transported to a nearby hospital. Travolta refused a demand for money.

Lightbourn and Bridgewater had pleaded not guilty.

While lawyers and journalists awaited the verdict Wednesday night, they were inundated with calls from colleagues that someone at a rally for the Progressive Liberal Party had announced that party member Bridgewater was “free at last.”

When the courtroom doors opened to a packed crowd, the jury foreman said the jurors needed more time to deliberate. However, Allen opted to discharge the jury.

“About two hours ago, there was an announcement at a particular political party,” she said. “It leaves the impression that there may have been a communication in the jury room. I am going to discharge you from returning your verdict.”

Allen then ordered a retrial.

“We would have liked to have had a verdict so there would be closure in this case, but we prefer to have a new trial,” said Travolta’s lawyer Michael Ossi. “We believe the evidence was very strong and convincing. The jury was deliberating for about eight hours. … If, in fact, Tarino Lightbourn or Pleasant Bridgewater were found not guilty, a verdict would have been read hours before this announcement.”

Carlson Shurland, Lightbourn’s lawyer, expressed disappointment over the judge’s ruling, saying the case has been a “financial nightmare.”

“Unfortunately, after a lot of expenses, I’m very, very disappointed,” he said. “I’m confident that we would have had a favorable verdict.”

Earlier in the trial, Travolta had testified that his son was found unresponsive by a nanny.

Travolta said he initially told the ambulance driver to rush them to an airport where his private jet was parked. Travolta, who is a pilot, planned to fly his son to a West Palm Beach, Florida, hospital instead of driving him to one in nearby Freeport.

The actor testified that while he and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, were riding in the ambulance with their son, they decided to take the teen to the hospital, instead of flying to Florida.

At the hospital, Travolta was told his son “wasn’t alive,” he said.

During the ambulance ride, Lightbourn asked Travolta to sign a statement releasing the ambulance company from liability.

“I received a liability of release document. I signed it. I did not read it. Time was of the essence,” Travolta testified.

Travolta testified that he later learned about a demand for $25 million. If he didn’t pay, “stories connected to that document would be sold to the press,” the actor said. “The stories would imply the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable somehow.”

An attorney representing Bridgewater and Lightbourn asked Travolta whether the defendants had ever contacted or threatened him directly. Travolta said they had not and that he had heard specifics about the situation through his attorneys.

Travolta’s attorney, Michael McDermott, testified that Bridgewater had told him that the “document would show [Travolta] killed his son or was negligent in the death of his son.”

Also, McDermott told the court that Bridgewater had claimed that the form was evidence that Travolta was “trying to flee the country with his dead son.”

“I said to Mrs. Bridgewater, ‘What you are doing is a criminal offense — it’s extortion in the United States,” McDermott testified.

McDermott said he contacted authorities and later met with Bridgewater in a Nassau hotel room for a conversation secretly recorded by Bahamian police.

The price for keeping the document under wraps was dropped through subsequent phone conversations. McDermott said it went from $25 million to $10 million.

[From CNN]

This must be extremely disappointing for the family, and I hope this whole mess can be sorted out. It’s hard to know whether the person at the political rally was just making up stories to please the crowd or if there was something even more sinister going on. It certainly doesn’t speak well of the government in the Bahamas if it’s true. Anyway, it looks like Travolta and wife Kelly Preston will have to go through this entire ugly and painful process again if they want to see these two clowns put in jail.

There are few things more terrible than losing your child. One of those things is having to re-live the death of your child in a courtroom, because someone is trying to extort from you and profit from that child’s death. A lot has been said about John Travolta – specifically about his ties to Scientology – but no one can argue that yesterday had to be one of the worst days in his life. Travolta and wife Kelly Preston appeared in a Bahamian courtroom today, where John had to give his testimony in an extortion trial. The actor was asked to recount the time leading up to his son Jett’s death, and for the first time, he publicly revealed that his late son was indeed autistic.

In what will no doubt go down as the second most difficult day of his year, John Travolta took the stand this morning in the trial of two Bahamians allegedly involved in a $25 million extortion plot against his family.

A grim Travolta and Kelly Preston arrived at a Bahamian courthouse this morning escorted by a fleet of security.

The actor took the stand and immediately began revisiting the moments before his 16-year-old son Jett’s death on Jan. 2.

Jett’s nanny awakened Travolta and Preston at roughly 10:15 a.m., the actor said, informing them that Jett was unconscious in his bathroom.

“He was pounding on the door upstairs where we were sleeping. I ran downstairs with my wife to help my son,” Travolta recalled, adding that when he got to him, one of the boy’s caretakers was already performing chest compressions.

The actor quickly jumped into action and began administering CPR to his son, whom he also acknowledged on the stand suffered not only from Kawasaki disease, but from autism as well.

“Jeff, the other nanny, was doing some compressions,” he said. “I was doing the breathing.

“I took the place of the woman who was doing CPR. She was an employee of Old Bahama Bay who I recognized as such.”

After a brief lunch break, Travolta returned to the stand and for the first time admitted that the long-time speculation was true about his son’s condition.

“He was autistic,” he said. “He suffered from a seizure disorder.”

Travolta said his son suffered seizures every five to 10 days and that each seizure lasted around 45 seconds. Jett would usually sleep for 12 hours after an episode.

Travolta did not get much further in his testimony: An objection was raised and the court recessed. It’s clear what spurred on the objection and whether Travolta will return to the stand.

Opening arguments kicked off yesterday, with the Bahamian chief prosecutor wasting no time getting to the heart of the matter.

“Contact was made with certain persons to communicate a threat to John Travolta,” Bernard Turner said, referring to codefendants Pleasant Bridgewater, a former senator, and Tarino Lightbourne, an ambulance driver, who together are alleged to have attempted to extort $25 million from the grieving star.

At the root of the case is a refusal-to-transport document: The trial’s first witness, police inspector Andrew Wells, said Travolta requested that Jett be taken directly to the airport rather than the hospital—the reasoning likely being that he could just as quickly get his son medical treatment in the U.S. as on the island—and signed a release form stating just that.

In the end, Jett was taken directly to the hospital after all. It’s unclear what accounted for the change in decision or why the threat of publication of the signed document seemed like a good bargaining chip for the alleged extortionists.

The second witness to take the stand yesterday, paramedic Derrex Rolle, testified that Jett was already unresponsive when the emergency services arrived at the actor’s vacation home.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

[From E!Online]

I’m still kind of confused about this whole extortion plot and don’t really understand how this former senator and ambulance driver thought they’d get any money. It’s pretty clear that John Travolta signed the refusal to transport in a state of high emotion, hoping that he could transport his dying son by plane to the U.S. and possibly receive better care. When it was obvious that Jett was beyond medical intervention, he was transported to the hospital after all. So, again: where’s the motivation for extortion? These people are real lowlifes to exploit a grieving family. It must have been incredibly difficult for Travolta to take the stand and talk about his son’s last hours, but I’m glad he found the courage to do so. I hope these jerks go to jail for a long time.

John Travolta is currently in the Bahamas to potentially testify in the high profile extortion case against former Bahamian senator Pleasant Bridgewater and paramedic Tarino Lightbourne. Bridgewater and Lightbourne are accused of demanding $25 million from the actor in exchange for keeping quiet about a “refusal to transport” document for Travolta’s son, Jett, who died in the Bahamas in January after suffering a seizure and hitting his head. The background on the document is benign enough – Travolta initially wanted to fly Jett in his private jet to Florida for treatment instead of having him taken to hospital in the Bahamas. It could have taken the same amount of time, 45 minutes, to take Jett back to Florida as it would have to drive him to the hospital in the Bahamas. By signing the document, Travolta was releasing the hospital from legal liability in the event of complications. Travolta opted to take Jett to the Bahamian hospital instead, but apparently Lightbourne and his lawyer, Bridgewater, thought that the news that Travolta wanted to fly Jett to Florida was something that he would pay dearly to keep out of the press.

Yesterday a nine person jury with three men and six women was selected. Travolta is on the witness list with 13 other people, and is the first witness listed for the opening day of trial today:

John Travolta has traveled to the Bahamas and is prepared to be the first witness Tuesday in an extortion case linked to his 16-year-old son’s death, a source tells PEOPLE.

The actor is staying at an exclusive gated community west of Nassau, the source says. This is believed to be Travolta’s first visit to the Bahamas since Jett Travolta died last January after suffering a seizure at the actor’s vacation home on the island of Grand Bahama.

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.

Supreme Court Judge Anita Allen swore in the six-woman, three-man jury Monday, with opening statements slated to begin Tuesday morning.

Travolta, who heads the 14-member witness list, was not among the four witnesses present in court during jury selection. But he is expected to testify – and likely will have to recount the painful memories of Jett’s death – since he filed the extortion complaint.

“If the prosecution doesn’t call him, we will,” Mary Bain, a lawyer representing Lightbourn, tells PEOPLE. “Of course, he’s a key witness.”

[From People]

There was speculation last month that Travolta and his wife of 18 years, Kelly Preston,were having trouble in their marriage after Jett passed. Kelly has been hard at work while Travolta took a trip by himself to Tahiti earlier this year and has cut a lonely figure since. John doesn’t need to go through the pain of having to recount his son’s death after two greedy people tried to take advantage of him. If these people did try to extort money from Travolta over a tragedy they deserve to have the book thrown at them.

John Travolta is shown in November, 2008 at the premiere of Bolt. Credit: PRPhotos. Other photos are of the two suspects, Bridgewater and Lightbourne, outside of court yesterday. Credit: WENN.com

It’s been three months since John Travolta and Kelly Preston lost their son Jett. Though the family has not made a public appearance since Jett’s death, caused by a massive seizure, those close to John, Kelly and their daughter Ella say they are coping well – thanks to their friends and their faith in the controversial religion of Scientology.

Just months after the sudden loss of their only son Jett, John Travolta and Kelly Preston are slowly letting the world back into their lives. Friends and family say the Travoltas are coping with the teen’s death as well as they can and leaning on their faith in Scientology to find peace.

“John is a strong man, but to lose a loved one, it’s the worst time in anyone’s life,” Olivia Newton-John, a longtime pal, told PEOPLE in its new cover story.

On Jan. 2, the Travoltas’ family vacation turned to tragedy when son Jett was found unconscious in bathtub at the family’s resort in the Bahamas. Jett eventually died of a seizure, despite several attempts to save him. Travolta tried to revive Jett using CPR after the teen was discovered unconscious. “He was doing mouth-to-mouth to resuscitate,” Travolta’s attorney Michael McDermott said.

Actress Leah Remini has watched the family tragedy unfold and says they are dealing with the tragedy very well. “How do you deal with the greatest tragedy in your life? I can tell you that they are handling it the best any parent could ever deal,” Remini said.

While they are still trying to stay out of the public eye, friends say the couple haven’t secluded themselves and are making time to see friends and stay strong for their daughter Ella Bleu.

“They aren’t secluding themselves or paralyzed,” a family friend said. “[Seeing them] was like old times. Nothing awkward and no topics to dance around. There were smiles.”

Despite controversy with their religion, friends say Scientology has helped the family find peace with their son’s death. “They’re relying on their faith to get them through this. Their faith is solid, and their family is solid,” said a friend.

[From People]

I certainly can’t condone the principles behind Scientology – it sounds like organized lunacy to me – but I can understand their grief, and their need to cling to some kind of comfort in this nightmarish time. When we lost our baby in January, we really needed to understand why. It didn’t make any sense to us. Maybe people who have religion in their lives can find comfort in leaving the “why” question in the hands of God, Jehovah, Xenu or whatever. For us, that wouldn’t have worked. But one thing I’ve learned is that everyone gets through their grief differently. It’s also a blessing to have other children in your life when something like this happens – they bounce back very quickly and remind you that life goes on, even after something terrible happens.

TMZ claims to have the details of the document that a paramedic and Bahamian official allegedly tried to use to extort millions from John Travolta. If their facts are right, it doesn’t sound that damning to Travolta. The document is a “refusal to transport,” which concerns Travolta’s initial request to fly his 16 year-old son, Jett, to Florida to receive treatment after he suffered the seizure and fall in the Bahamas that resulted in his tragic death. As a concerned dad trying to make the best decision for his son, Travolta initially thought that he could fly him to Florida in the same amount of time, 45 minutes, that it would take to get him to the hospital in the Bahamas via ambulance.

We’ve now gotten to the bottom of the mystery document that was the basis for the alleged extortion plot in the John Travolta case.

Sources connected with the investigation tell us John Travolta told EMT workers he wanted to fly his son to Florida rather than drive by ambulance to the hospital….which was 45 minutes away.

There was a disagreement over which course would be better. John felt initially it might take the same amount of time to get his son to Florida where he might get better care.

The document at issue would have released emergency services from any liability if Travolta elected the Florida route.

In the end John realized the hospital was Jett’s best hope.

[From TMZ]

If this is true, you can’t blame Travolta for trying to get top care for his son. Out of concern for Jett he questioned whether he could get him to Florida to be seen by doctors he knew and trusted in the same amount of time, which seems like something any parent in that situation might do.

The ambulance driver who is implicated in the extortion plot, Tarino Lightbourne, has been arrested along with his lawyer. The lawyer, Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, resigned her position in the Bahamian senate due to the allegations and is now out on $40,000 bail. She maintains her innocence and issued a statement suggesting that there was no extortion plot. “How these innocent actions can be so misconstrued, so perversely twisted to mean something other than it was, is a mystery.” Obie Wilchcombe, a friend of the Travoltas and a former tourism minister for the Bahamas, was also arrested and has been released.

Last week it was revealed that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were being extorted for $20 million by a politician and two other people in the Bahamas. The rumor was that they had photos of Jett Travolta right before or after he died, and they were trying to get money from the family in exchange for them. Now the three identities of the people involved have been revealed, and it includes “local lawmaker and attorney Pleasant Bridgewater, a Bahama senator,” the ambulance driver who took John and Jett to the hospital, and the former Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, who claimed that he was a friend of the family and acted as their spokesperson.

Of course they have all denied any wrongdoing.

Two of the three people arrested in the Bahamas last week in connection with an alleged extortion scheme targeting John Travolta claimed to have been by the Travoltas’ side in the moments leading up to and right after the death of their son, Jett.

Bahamian authorities have said little this morning about the alleged extortion scheme that targeted John Travolta. But, according to previous media reports, a group of people wanted as much as $20 million in exchange for a cell phone picture taken of Jett on the way to the hospital minutes before his death from a seizure Jan. 2.

Two prominent Bahamian citizens and a paramedic were detained last week in the Bahamas in connection with the alleged plot. One was Tarino Lightbourne, the paramedic who drove the ambulance to the hospital after Jett collapsed.

“It was me, him and Jett,” Lightbourne told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Jan. 5. “I’ll never forget this day. I saw him lean over and hug his son and kiss his son and tell him he loved him and I did everything I could. I saw love in his eyes, I saw love. [Travolta] hugged him, put his arm around him, kissed him on the forehead and the cheek and told him he loved him. He then turned to me and gave me a hug and said, you guys did a wonderful job.”

Lightbourne was detained Friday for attempted extortion and, according to news reports, was still in custody Sunday.

[From ABC News]

Wilchcombe also vehemently denied any involvement in the extortion, and claimed Bridgewater was innocent as well.

Wilchcombe tells Us he was approached early last week by Bridgewater who alerted him that “someone was doing something untowards” and that he passed this information to Travolta’s lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott. “She knew I was close to the Travolta’s. She wanted to bring something to my attention.” He says this was the topic of his questioning by investigators.

Asked if he sought or expected any compensation from the Travoltas Wilchcombe was adamant: “Never once, asking for anything! Never once, expecting anything! This is ridiculous and absurd. The Travolta’s are suffering, it’s just outright foolish. Never did I ask for anything, no one can say that. We had a friend in my country who lost a son. It was one single individual [who tried to take advantage of the family], the Bahamian people have been very kind to the Travoltas.”

[From US Weekly]

It’s impossible to say what went down, but it sounds like the ambulance driver had the opportunity to take the cell phone picture – and he’s the only one still in custody. Still, that doesn’t mean that two more powerful people – Wilchcombe and Bridgewater – weren’t trying to take advantage of him in some way.

This whole situation is so sad for the Travoltas, who shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of stuff right now. Their lawyers have said they won’t be releasing a statement on the matter, and frankly I think that’s good. This crap is probably the last thing on their minds, and should be dealt with by the authorities.

Tom Cruise taped an appearance on “The View” yesterday which will air this morning. The 46 year-old Scientologist answered some questions from Barbara Walters about the death of his friend John Travolta’s son, Jett, and the controversy surrounding Jett’s passing. Although producers likely cleared the questions with Cruise ahead of time he looked like he was put on the spot and was at a loss for words. Cruise called Jett’s death “horrific” and recalled meeting the boy when he was just a few months old. He said that it’s not true that Scientologists don’t take medication, and said they do go to the doctor, but he focused on the word “physical” as opposed to “mental” ilness:

Tom Cruise, a family friend of John Travolta and Kelly Preston, is speaking out about the tragic death of their 16-year-old son Jett.

“I remember Jett when he was born,” Cruise, 46, says on The View, scheduled to air on Friday. “I saw him when he was just a few months old and John just adored him, and both of his children, and Kelly.”

Jett died on Jan. 2 after suffering a seizure while vacationing with his family in the Bahamas. A private memorial service in Ocala, Fla. was scheduled for Thursday.

“I just don’t have the words for it,” says Cruise, who was on the show to discuss his movie Valkyrie. “It’s just horrific. Here you have a man, both of them doting parents, they’re wonderful people and…”

As for speculation that the Travoltas did not seek medical help for Jett, who had a history of seizures, because of their Scientology beliefs, Cruise, also a Scientologist, says the religion does not discourage medical attention.

“That’s just not true,” he says. “They say, ‘Get your physical, get your medication, get your physical illnesses handled.’”

[From People]

When this tragedy first happened I was upset at the way that people were so willing to rush to judgment and to blame Scientology and the parents for something they had very little information about. It was a logical leap that wasn’t warranted and used the same fallacious arguments that people accuse Scientology of. It’s fine to insinuate and gossip about Tom and Katie’s relationship, but after a boy has died it just seems wrong.

There are plenty of questions in this case that mainly focus on whether it could have been prevented if Jett was on the proper medication. We are not likely to ever know if Jett could have been seizure free or if the right medication could have prevented the seizure that ended up costing his life. Jett’s family will probably be haunted by that question forever, even if they sought the right medical treatment for him and did all they could. If they didn’t, their son paid the ultimate price for it. Again, we’re not likely to ever know or to even have enough information to adequately judge.

Jett Travolta’s private memorial service was held yesterday at his parent’s estate in a gated community in Ocala, Florida.

Jett Travolta has died as a result of a seizure, his death certificate has confirmed. There are no suspicious circumstances and his body has been returned to his family. The autopsy results may or may not be released to the pubic.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son, Jett, who had a history of health problems, was killed by a “seizure,” according to the death certificate issued today.

While the official results of an autopsy today have yet to been publicly announced, mortician Glen Campbell of the Restview Memorial Mortuary in the Bahamas confirmed to E! News that cause of death was a seizure and “there was no sign of head trauma.”

“The body was in good condition,” Campbell said.

A source close to the proceedings also told E! News that a preliminary report on Jett’s death determined “there is no foul play,” corroborating what a Travolta family lawyer initially stated last Friday.

“It is not a suspicious death. The body wouldn’t already be turned over to the mortuary if there was anything suspicious,” the source said. Autopsies are standard procedure in the Bahamas in cases of sudden death.

E! News

I don’t think there was much question of Jett’s cause of death, given his medical history, but an autopsy stops any questions that might linger for the family. Please note that the ‘no sign of head trauma’ comment is from the mortician, not the pathologist, who would know more accurately the signs of head trauma. This does not mean that Jett didn’t hit his head, as reported earlier. Death certificates can be strange in their causes – my grandfather died of cancer, but on his death certificate it says ‘heart failure’ because that was technically his cause of death.

The lawyers of the Travolta family have given a statement suggesting that Jett may have died in his father’s arms.

“He never dreamed of this – their relationship was so close,” says family attorney Mike Ossi, who is in the Bahamas with the actor. “He always said ‘I’m happy as long as my kids are happy.’ He is heartbroken … To bury your son is the worst thing you can ever do.”

According to Ossi, 16-year-old Jett was discovered by a nanny on Friday morning around 10 a.m. After the nanny called 911, John Travolta tried in vain to resuscitate his son.

“He didn’t want anything to happen to that boy, and he kept on trying to revive him,” said Ossi. “He did mouth-to-mouth until they had to physically remove John to take Jett to the hospital.”

The teen, who is the only son of Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46, has a history of having seizures. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey told the Associated Press that Jett hit his head in a bathtub Friday morning and was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital.

According to Ossi, around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, John said goodnight to his son, who was tired from a long day spent on the water with his family. Jett went to his room with his nanny. “He always had a nanny by his side because he had a history of seizures,” says Ossi. “John took extra precautions. [Jett] was never alone.”

Mike McDermott, John’s corporate counsel, adds, “John did everything in his power to revive [his son.] John and Jett had a very strong relationship. Words cannot explain how close they were. This will take a lot of time. His life will never be the same again.”

People

I hope this is true, because, as Ossi points out, this is the worst case scenario for any parent. Being with them when they died would be the best outcome you could possibly hope for in these circumstances.

Yesterday the emergency crew spoke about the scene, saying that both John and his wife Kelly Preston traveled with Jett in the ambulance to the hospital, where they were speaking to him.

This is just such a tragedy. People magazine have dug up an interview with John Travolta where he says in 1994 that he can’t imagine life without his son. No parent wants to think about what life would be like without them, it’s just too horrifying. I’m hugging my kids a little tighter today; my heart goes out to the Travolta family.

Photos courtesy of Travolta.com

Jett Travolta, 16, died after suffering a seizure and a fall in the bathroom of his parents’ vacation home in the Bahamas. His body was discovered on Friday morning. Police sources have him falling and drowning in the bathtub late Thursday night, a claim his parents deny. They say he fell in the morning right before he was found and that he was well cared for and watched by two in-house nannies. Jett leaves behind his parents, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and sister Ella, 8.

Jett was rumored to have suffered from autism, which often co-exists with a seizure disorder but does not have seizures listed among the symptoms. Jett’s mother, Kelly Preston, has only stated that her son had Kawasaki disease, a rare immune disorder caused by early childhood exposure to toxic chemicals.

In May of 2007, a story came out that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were ignoring their son Jett’s autism. It was based on an interview with one of their neighbors, a restaurant owner who happened to have a four year-old autistic child and recognized some of the symptoms in Jett when the family came in to his establishment to eat. The neighbor told Hollywood, Interrupted that he asked Travolta to get involved in autism fundraisers and was rebuffed. According to this guy’s diagnosis from afar, John and Kelly weren’t getting the proper therapy for their child and were letting him eat junk food and play video games. The neighbor didn’t explain how he knew that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were neglecting Jett, and it seemed to be based on just seeing them in his restaurant and getting handed a Scientology booklet by Travolta.

Scientology does not recognize autism
John Travolta and Kelly Preston are Scientologists. Scientology is a well-documented harmful cult that does not recognize autism as a disorder, does not allow followers to use psychiatric medication, and often blames sufferers for mental illness.

We don’t know if Jett had autism or what his care was like
All we have is rumor and one guy’s questionable assessment that suggests Jett had poor care. We don’t know if he had autism, if he was receiving therapy or treatment, or if his parent’s belief system contributed to his death in any way. From the reports that Travolta’s people are giving TMZ, it sounds like Jett had very good care and that it was a terrible accident.

Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for a long time
According to the Travoltas, Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for years but it eventually stopped working for him. They say they met with neurologists who decided to take him off the medication as it was no longer effective. Even with medication people can still suffer from seizures and accidents do happen. Hunter Tylo’s son died last year at 19 after having a seizure and falling into a pool and no one blamed her or her husband for his death.

There’s little reason to blame the parents and it’s hurtful
Now that John and Kelly have suffered an immeasurable loss, people are making the unjustified logical leap that they must be responsible in some way since their “religion” doesn’t recognize autism as a disorder and preaches against the use of psychiatric drugs. I’m as against Scientology as the next person, but you can’t take some small pieces of information and jump to conclusions. It’s fine to speculate when it involves someone’s love life, but when it involves the death of child it can be hurtful to say the least.

We don’t know all the details surrounding his condition or his death, some early stories have been inaccurate, and even the medical experts among us couldn’t pass judgment without being privy to the facts.

Let’s not blame this suffering family for something we have no clue about. They’ve already lost their son and none of us know the circumstances of their home life or what happened that led to their son’s death.

John Travolta has issued a statement on his website about his son’s death. He says, in part: “Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered. We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.”

Update: Many of you have pointed out that John Travolta’s brother Joey made a documentary about autism in 2006 called “Normal People Scare Me,” in which John and Jett were not involved. It was thought to have been directed in some way at his brother.

The skepticism about Jett’s treatment is completely understandable given his parent’s involvement in Scientology. Of course there needs to be a thorough investigation and maybe the increased focused on the very dangerous practices of Scientology will finally help bring this criminal organization down. They need to be tried under the RICO act in the US.

All that said, I’m very disappointed at other media outlets’ rush to judgment. Look at what happened with the Heath Ledger case. The initial details were wrong and people condemned and dismissed him as a drug addict. That was a full grown man who had died from a drug interaction, and this is a teen boy who was disabled and suffered seizures. He’s barely dead and people are already saying “His parents are Scientologists, told you so.”

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son Jett has died, according to TMZ. No details have been released about the cause of death or when it happened – all that’s known is that the family was vacationing in the Bahamas, and a hospital there has confirmed Jett’s passing.

Rand Memorial Hospital in the Bahamas tells TMZ the son of John Travolta died today.

We’re told 16-year-old Jett was vacationing with Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. We do not know the circumstances of his death.

There have been reports that Jett was autistic, though Travolta has denied it, saying he suffers from Kawasaki Syndrome, a condition which often leads to heart disease.

[From TMZ]

We will keep this story updated as more information becomes available. Our hearts go out to the Travolta/Preston family.

Update: MSNBC said that Jett suffered a seizure during which he hit his head on the bathtub.

The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to the family’s lawyer.

Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family’s vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said. According to Access Hollywood, Jett fell and hit his head on the bathtub in his hotel room.

Attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene, Ossi said.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have a daughter, Ella Blue, who was born in 2000.

[From MSNBC]

Here’s John Travolta, Kelly Preston with kids Jett and Ella Bleu, leaving an airport in Rome on November 5th, 2005. Images thanks to Splash.