US News

Travolta bids for US trial

With the John Travolta extortion case thrown into chaos after a mistrial yesterday, a move is in the works to take it out of the Bahamas and bring it to the United States.

Travolta lawyer Michael Ossi is working through diplomatic channels to get the criminal charges in the alleged $25 million plot heard in Jacksonville, Fla., he told The Post shortly before the mistrial ruling.

“I have asked the Bahamian authorities to preserve all the evidence for the FBI to review, and I have written to the federal government and the Bahamian government about trying the case in Florida,” Ossi said.

The basis for bringing the case against island politician Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne to America is that some of the alleged extortion phone calls were made to Ossi’s office in Jacksonville.

Bridgewater and Lightbourne allegedly threatened to tell the media that Travolta was responsible for his 16-year-old son Jett’s death in January because he initially wanted to fly the seizure-stricken boy to Florida.

“The original call was made from the Bahamas to Florida, so there is jurisdiction for a trial in the US,” Ossi said.

Senior Justice Anita Allen declared a mistrial because a Bahamian politician told a crowd that Bridgewater had been cleared, before a verdict was announced.

“Pleasant is a free woman! God is good! Pleasant is a free woman!” lawmaker Picewell Forbes said at a rally for the Progressive Liberal Party, of which Bridgewater is a member.

Ossi said Travolta and wife Kelly Preston want to put the ordeal behind them, but will fight on.

“The family would like to privately begin their long healing process without the prospect of more litigation over their heads,” he said. “But we have no choice. ”

todd.venezia@nypost.com