John Travolta Extortion Case: The Details Come Out
Posted by Josh loposer at 8:30 AM on September 24, 2009
The tragic death of John Travolta’s son Jett was a total shock to the celebrity parenting world, and now it’s spawned one of the most twisted and bizarre cases of celebrity blackmail in recent years. According to news coming from the ongoing trial, paramedic Tarino Lightbourne wanted $US25 million to keep quiet about the circumstances surrounding Jett’s death.
As the story goes, Travolta, being a deeply-entrenched Scientologist (who refused to believe that Jett was autistic) refused to let paramedics take his 16-year-old son to a local hospital. Instead he insisted that Jett be taken to an airport (45 minutes away) to have him flown back to the US.
At some point during the chaos, John was asked to sign a “refusal of medical attention” form, limiting the liability of paramedics. Which he did.
However, Travolta eventually listened to reason and allowed Jett to be transported to the Rand Memorial Hospital, where he died.
So apparently, that’s the mystery document that the greedy paramedic threatened to reveal if he didn’t get his $US25 million. And, in all honesty, it really doesn’t reflect too well on John Travolta’s judgement.
Still, that doesn’t justify any attempt to extort money from a bereaved father! What a total a-hole!
There definitely might be a cautionary tale in here somewhere about parents with very strong and controversial ideas about conventional medicine.
Give me a break, one of my babies fall ill somewhere else, my first thought would be to get him home to the best medical care. That’s a no brainer and does not reflect poorly on John’s judgement at all. And as for signing anything, one has to rememeber his state of mind. His child is in serious trouble for his life. Someone say’s sign here, no parent in the world would second to the thought of signing. These people need to go to prison simple as that.
The idea that Scientologists do not “believe” in autism is false. It does not matter how many times it echoes from one blog to another, it is still false. The Church of Scientology does not have a position on autism one way or the other. Scientologists make their own medical choices just like anyone else. And to say the Travoltas “hid” their son’s condition just because they chose not to make it a media topic is very unfair.