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

An emotional Pleasant Bridgewater yesterday held back tears as she professed her innocence and claimed she was the victim of a set-up by people she trusted, including PLP Senate leader Allyson Maynard-Gibson, who she said told a lie on the witness stand.

Bridgewater gave an unsworn statement to the jury from the bar as the defense began submissions in her attempted extortion trial in the Supreme Court.

"I maintain my innocence today," she said. "I was merely doing what I thought was right as a citizen of The Bahamas. I never ever intended to extort anything from anybody. I always, all my life tried to help people. I will be the first to say that I am no saint. But I am no devil."

Bridgewater said she has been continually humiliated since she was arrested in January and has seen her reputation and the law practice that she "built from nothing" virtually destroyed.

She said that were it not for the prayers of her friends, family and church members, "I could have been in Sandilands (Rehabilitation Centre)...but it is the grace of God that kept me."

Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne are accused of attempting to extort $25 million from American actor John Travolta in exchange for the suppression of a document and allegations that Travolta played a part in his 16-year-old son Jett Travolta's death in Grand Bahama on January 2.

"For the last 10 months, I have been ridiculed and ostracized and scandalized," said Bridgewater, who resigned from the Senate on January 24, a day after she was arrested by police. "I have had to lay off employees. From January, I myself have not received a salary. I have been emotionally unable to work."

Bridgewater said she falsely told police that she had burned a copy of a refusal to transfer form from the Rand Memorial Hospital when they searched her home on January 22. She claimed that the harsh manner in which her elderly parents were being treated during the search caused her such distress that she made the statement to end the ordeal.

"I never burned any document," Bridgewater claimed yesterday. "I will admit that I said that I burned the document. I said that because when I saw my senior citizen parents being disrespected in their own home. I said that. I said that. What would you have done?"

Bridgewater said Maynard-Gibson, Travolta's Bahamian attorney — a woman Bridgewater said she trusted — set her up even after she had asked her for advice when she came to meet her on Grand Bahama on January 15.

"I said to her 'Allyson, let me tell you at the outset. If there is anything that I'm doing wrong or that might be illegal or criminal, I don't want to be a part of it at all.' I said that to her," Bridgewater told the jury yesterday.

"She said to me 'oh no, no, no Pleasant. I've always known you to be a person of integrity and an honorable person.'"

Bridgewater claimed Maynard-Gibson lied on the stand when she testified on September 30 that she warned Bridgewater on January 15 that what she was doing was wrong.

"Allyson never said that,'" Bridgewater claimed. "It never happened. It never happened. She came to me. Not once did I pick up the phone and called Allyson."

Bridgewater claimed she only met with Michael McDermott, Travolta's Florida-based attorney, in Nassau because Maynard-Gibson told her to and she trusted her judgment.

McDermott later testified that the police recorded his meetings with Bridgewater and Lightbourne.

"She lured me to Nassau. I went to Nassau at the behest of Allyson. I considered her to be a trusted friend. So when she called me, I didn't know she had the police recording her call. The first I saw her since then — other than when she came on television — was when she came to court that day."

Bridgewater said that she was essentially heartbroken by what she claimed Maynard-Gibson did to her. She pointed out that in addition to being her political and legal colleague, Maynard-Gibson was also a mentor and friend.

Bridgewater said she was also made a part of something she did not wish to be a party to when West End and Bimini MP Obie Wilchcombe — who is also her business partner — placed a call to McDermott on January 12.

She said Lightbourne approached her because he wanted her to help him field offers from the international press for the refusal to transfer document.

The document, if signed, releases the emergency medical staff of the Rand Memorial Hospital from any liability if a patient is not treated or transferred to the hospital. Travolta previously testified that he signed such a document.

Bridgewater said that as far as she was aware, it was not illegal to speak to the media or give the media information, but she told Lightbourne that "you must think of what it will look like for The Bahamas."

"[Lightbourne] never asked me to speak to the Travoltas or to seek any money from the Travoltas. That was never in my contemplation," Bridgewater said.

"I told Obie, friend to friend, out of concern. I didn't ask to speak to the Travoltas. He did that on his own. When I learned that it was McDermott on the phone, I didn't even want to speak to him."

Bridgewater maintained that she would never seek to extort money from Travolta and was shocked and disgraced when she was arrested just days after she met with McDermott. She said she believes that she will ultimately be vindicated.

"I have never taken anything from anybody. I have never sought to gain from people's tragedies," she said. "I have learned to depend on Jesus and I know that God will vindicate me in all of this. No one should have to go through this.

"I maintain my 100 percent innocence. What Allyson and McDermott and the others did to me, I leave that to God."

Bridgewater briefly broke down in tears during a short recess not long after her statement. Her family consoled her.

The case continues this morning.

October 15, 2009

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