DEFENDANTS: Pleasant Bridgewater (left inset) and Tarino Lightbourn allegedly tried to extort the actor (above) with a “damaging” document.
NASSAU, Bahamas — A paramedic on trial for allegedly trying to shake down John Travolta for $25 million was caught on tape telling one of the actor’s lawyers that he needed that much money to help the needy.
People.com, which viewed the tape, reported yesterday that Tarino Lightbourn — one of the first medics on the scene in early January when Travolta’s 16-year-old son, Jett, died — asked the actor’s lawyer, Michael McDermott, for the sum in exchange for his silence about a “damaging document.”
“I was poor all my life,” Lightbourn told the lawyer. “I wanted to do things for charity all my life.”
“You’re a Bahamian Robin Hood, man!” McDermott said with a laugh.
The conversation — which co-defendant Pleasant Bridgewater apparently listened in on via speakerphone — was recorded by Royal Bahamian Police, according to People.
Bridgewater, a former Bahamian senator, and Lightbourn were trying to get the actor to pay up in return for their keeping quiet about a “do not transport” form Travolta had signed when he was deciding whether to take his dying son to an airport instead of to a local hospital after the teen suffered a seizure.
Lightbourn eventually agreed to take a $15 million payout on the tape, but refused McDermott’s suggestion that it be paid in installments.
“I can’t do installments,” Lightbourn reportedly said.
“I want to get this behind me. I don’t want to see you anymore . . . I’m thinking, how do I know if I go to the States one day the feds don’t pick me up? How do I know if I go to the States one day, it’s not a hit on me?”
On the tape, the men worked out a “deal” in which Lightbourn would be wired funds, according to People.
Once Lightbourn got the money, McDermott said, “I want those damn documents . . . and [you] have a wonderful life.”
“Exactly,” Lightbourn agreed. “Once this is closed, it’s buried deeper than the Titanic.”
A month after the alleged shakedown, Travolta filed a complaint with Bahamian police.
At the pair’s trial yesterday, Bahamian politician Obie Wilchcombe, a Travolta friend, testified that Bridgewater approached him shortly after the death, claiming to represent a client with a damaging document.
The document was on the letterhead of the hospital where Jett was taken the night he died.
“I said, ‘This is bull- – -,’ ” Wilchcombe testified. “Your client should jump off a roof and kill himself.”
Bridgewater never named her “client” or asked for money, he said.
“She said she didn’t want any harm to come to the Travoltas.”
Wilchcombe said he contacted two Travolta lawyers after speaking with Bridgewater.