TIGblogs - Dennis Dames

BY JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com:

As the third week of testimony in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne got underway yesterday, the jury saw videotape evidence in which Lightbourne acknowledged that there could be legal ramifications for negotiating the sale of a document he allegedly thought could implicate American actor John Travolta in the death of his son on Grand Bahama earlier this year.

"You know what we're both doing here is a criminal offense?" Travolta's American attorney Michael McDermott asked Lightbourne as he sat across the table from him in his room at the Sheraton Resort on Cable Beach on January 20.

"Yes," Lightbourne responded.

"Okay," McDermott said. " If we get caught, we're both in trouble."

"Yes," Lightbourne said.

McDermott, who claimed he was acting in line with a request from the Royal Bahamas Police Force to conclude a deal with Lightbourne, then told the ambulance driver, "You seem like a nice guy Tarino, but I really wish I never met (you)."

"I guarantee you. I put my life on this," Lightbourne said. "I guarantee you that (if) this comes out or comes up later, the lady here on the phone brought it up."

The "lady" Lightbourne referred to is Bridgewater, who McDermott called on his cell phone and placed on speakerphone at the beginning of the nearly 40 minute meeting.

Yesterday jurors also saw a videotape of a meeting that McDermott had in the same hotel room the day before with Bridgewater.

During that conversation, McDermott asked Bridgewater what guarantees he had that if he paid Lightbourne he would not ask for more money at a later date.

"I said to him... if you would go back after these people again, I'll be prepared to go to the police myself," she told McDermott.

An audiotape of a telephone conversation between McDermott and Bridgewater was also played in court yesterday.

During the course of that telephone conversation on January 18, Bridgewater could be heard talking about how uncomfortable she was with negotiating on Lightbourne's behalf.

"I'm not involved... to the extent that he called me, and said that if I don't do this, he will find a ghetto lawyer to do it for him," Bridgewater said. "I said to (Lightbourne) 'I don't like this. I don't think that you should be doing this. I think this is all wrong. I just want it over with. I really don't ever want to hear about it again, I feel so badly about the whole thing'."

McDermott said last week that Lightbourne's initial demand was for $25 million.

During the January 19 meeting with Bridgewater, McDermott countered by offering Lightbourne $250,000 for the document and to "purchase his silence."

McDermott said that there was no way he could come up with $25 million, especially not in cash as Lightbourne had requested.

Bridgewater then called Lightbourne on his cell phone and told him McDermott's offer.

She then told McDermott that Lightbourne responded by telling her: "My mortgage is more than that."

"It's obvious that you can't handle this deal. I can't do it for $250,000. Just tell me when I can come and get my document from you," Bridgewater quoted Lightbourne as saying.

As that meeting ended Bridgewater promised McDermott she would talk to Lightbourne.

When McDermott met with Lightbourne the next day, he asked Lightbourne where he came up with $25 million. Lightbourne said that he always wanted to do charity work and believed that $25 million would put him in a position to do so.

"I was poor all my life, you know? Me and my family, we were struggling all our life," he said. "I wanted to do things for charity all me life... so that figure just come to my head."

McDermott then remarked that Lightbourne was the "Bahamian Robin Hood".

In the January 20th meeting, Lightbourne told McDermott that $15 million was his "bottom line" and McDermott could "take it or leave it."

Last week, McDermott testified that Bridgewater told him that she eventually got Lightbourne to settle for $10 million ($2.5 million every year for four years).

In the January 20th conversation involving McDermott, Lightbourne and Bridgewater, she can be heard accepting the conditions of a wire transfer that McDermott proposed to send the funds to the ambulance driver.

"I don't want anything in my name," Lightbourne told McDermott. "You transfer to her and me and her will deal with it."

McDermott then asked Bridgewater if she was willing to accept the money if he could get permission to conduct the wire transfer.

"I'll accept it," Bridgewater said. "We haven't discussed any fees or anything."

McDermott then told Bridgewater to e-mail him the wire transfer instructions.

Last week McDermott said that on January 20 Bridgewater e-mailed him wire instructions on how to electronically transfer the money.

It was also revealed in court yesterday that Bridgewater and McDermott's meeting took place the same day (January 19) that The Tribune newspaper ran a headline story about a possible extortion plot surrounding the death of Travolta's son.

Bridgewater told McDermott that she had spoken to West End and Bimini MP Obie Wilchcombe that morning and he expressed concern about the article. She said the MP told her that someone from The Tribune had called him the day before to ask him about an alleged extortion plot against Travolta, but he assured her that he did not speak to them about the matter.

"This freaking me out, young lady," McDermott told Bridgewater in his room as he held the newspaper.

"You could imagine me?" Bridgewater said. "Honestly."

"I don't know. Do you still want to try and do this?" McDermott asked. "I'm really nervous."

Bridgewater and McDermott then continued their conversation, discussing an acceptable sum that would satisfy Lightbourne.

Testimony in the trial continues today.

October 6, 2009

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