As a mother myself, I cannot imagine that there is anything more devastating than the death of a child. What John Travolta and Kelly Preston have gone through in the last month since the seizure death of their 16-year-old son Jett in the Bahamas cannot be described in words. All of us feel their loss even from afar. One thing I can describe, though, are the events that happened subsequent to the passing of their teenage son. Pure and simple they are an outrage.

Three people in the Bahamas have been arrested in an extortion and conspiracy plot against the Travoltas. Even worse, two of them are politicians and one is the paramedic who drove Jett to the hospital as Travolta tried to revive him. Extortion, simply defined, is the obtaining of the property of another by threat.

Senator Pleasant Bridgewater has been arrested and has since resigned her position as a senator in the Bahamian Parliament. Obie Wilchcombe, the former minister of tourism and a self-described "friend" of the Travoltas, who couldn't resist a camera to relate the tragedy as it unfolded, has been arrested but not yet charged. Tarino Lightbourne, the paramedic, has been charged as the mastermind of the plot. Lightbourne says he heard Travolta's last words to Jett and drove Jett to the hospital. Curiously enough, law enforcement in the Bahamas has made it clear that the extortion attempt for $25 million is not about a photograph, but instead about a "document". The document has not been described. Indeed, to release the specifics of the document would be to play into the efforts of the plotters and embarrass the family, which explains why they are so tight lipped. Interestingly, there is no privacy law in the Bahamas that applies to photographs, which explains to some degree why Lightbourne is charged with forgery as well. If there is a photograph (and there is no suggestion or proof that there is), it may be the words that are attached which might make it a crime. According to the president of the Bahamas bar association, taking a picture of somebody when they are dying may be in extremely bad taste but it does not offend any Bahamian privacy laws. According to him, if a photo is real there is no transgression of the law.

Senator Bridgewater says that she was approached by a friend of Travolta (Wilchcombe) who told her that "someone was doing something untoward" and asked that she tell the Travolta lawyers. She then adds that the charges stem from "actions I took as a lawyer." HOGWASH!!! Someone should tell this woman that being a lawyer is not a defense to extorting millions from a grieving family. And by the way, wouldn't a lawyer and member of the parliament know enough to recognize an extortion plot and immediately notify the authorities? The genius Wilchcombe (the "friend') is the person who allegedly approached the good senator. It looks like Wilchcombe was brokering the deal; although he now claims he was doing the "noble thing" by contacting the senator. He says he was not involved and naively adds that he didn't "ask for anything", as if that is a defense to conspiracy. To their credit, Travolta's lawyers pretended to negotiate, all the while tape recording the extortion attempt.

The Bahamas are truly beautiful and certainly a desired vacation spot. Remember this is where Anna Nicole Smith spent her time before her death and where the minister of immigration became a little too friendly with her, as evidenced in the drama that unfolded regarding her death. Add to this amazing playground, foreigners who don't know the law, don't know how the system works, lots of money and grieving parents and you have a recipe for disaster. Parasites..........................

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