Once again, by delaying and denying justice, The Bahamas government will allow evil to triumph as Travolta’s accused extortionists are to be let off the hook.
In a carefully planned series of events, the government of the Bahamas has engineered a way for two accused extortionists to avoid prosecution and, once again, allow evil to triumph.
High placed sources in the Bahamas’ judicial system have revealed that the Attorney General’s Office is considering issuing a nolle prosequi in the case of former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and former ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne.
A nolle prosequi is issued when a plaintiff or prosecutor decides that he or she will not proceed further with a lawsuit or action.
Bridgwater and Lightbourne are accused of conspiring and attempting to extort $25 million from Hollywood actor John Travolta following the death of his son, Jett.
Bridgewater is also charged with abetment.
Sixteen-year-old Jett suffered a seizure and died at his family’s Grand Bahama vacation home in January 2009.
The unscrupulous duo went on trial last October. But that trial ended abruptly following PLP MP Picewell Forbes’ premature and incorrect outburst at his party’s convention last October.
During the convention Mr. Forbes claimed Bridgewater was a “free woman.” The problem is, the jury was still deliberating when he made the announcement.
Senior Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen immediately declared a mistrial.
It was later discovered that Mr Forbes’ outburst may have been a legal ploy, carefully engineered by the forces that rule The Bahamas, to skew the case and force a retrial.
The next part of the strategy included delaying the case and demanding that Mr Travolta must appear again in the rinky-dink Bahamian courts.
This is the typical corrupt strategy in The Bahamas… to make pursuing a case so difficult, time-consuming and expensive that good right-minded people end up deciding that the whole situation is not worth pursuing.
Once again, evil triumphs.
This strategy has been used over and over again for decades and is particularly effective when foreigners are involved, as the costs and inconvenience are magnified when foreigners have to keep coming to the Bahamas for court activity that is designed to be nothing but a nuisance. But the strategy works.
The corrupt strategy was highly effective in the Gallagher case, which was convoluted and delayed so many times it made eventual prosecution impossible.
It also works very well with murder trials in The Bahamas, as the more delays and foolish motions that attorneys can create, the less chance that witnesses will be available for the final trial. Plus, by allowing the murderers to be granted bail, it gives them time to “work on” the witnesses, who rarely show up for court.
Once again, evil triumphs.
The corrupt strategy has also been used in the Harl Taylor murder case, Thaddeus McDonald’s murder, Hywell Jones’ murder, Harald Fuhrmann’s case, various property disputes, almost all big drug dealer cases (ie: Melvin Maycock, Austin Knowles, etc.), the Sea Hauler case, the Anna Nicole Smith court cases, Mario Miller’s murder trial and many, many other legal issues.
It is understood now that the Travolta case may “disappear” because Mr Travolta is reluctant to reappear as a prosecution witness.
Knowing he would never receive justice in the corrupt Bahamas, Mr Travolta had hoped that the retrial would have taken place in the United States.
In the event, a nolle prosequi is issued, the high profile case would be dropped, freeing two despicably evil Bahamians from prosecution and, once again, allowing evil to triumph.
And Bahamians wonder why crime is out of control.
