Tragedy has once again struck John Travolta’s family — two dogs belonging to the actor were killed on Thursday in a freak airport accident.

In an email sent to the Bangor Daily News, city officials said:

“At approximately 1 a.m. on Thursday, May 13, 2010, an airplane carrying members of the John Travolta family landed at BIA. While there, two small dogs were taken for a walk by someone who is not a family member. An airport service pickup truck was approaching the airplane to service the plane and did not see the dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs were struck and killed. The airport is investigating the accident. Out of respect for the family’s privacy, the city will make no further comment.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with John and his family.

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The trial of two people accused of trying to extort John Travolta following the death of his son in the Bahamas has ended in a mistrial after a lawmaker suggested the still-deliberating jury had acquitted one of the defendants.

Senior Justice Anita Allen said she was reluctantly ordering a new trial “in the interest of justice” because the politician’s statement, in a speech broadcast on television and radio, gave the appearance of an improper leak from the jury room.

“The dilemma that we face is great,” Allen told the court. “I am erring on the side of caution. Justice must be transparent.”

Ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and his attorney, politician Pleasant Bridgewater, were accused of threatening to release private information about the January death of Travolta’s 16-year-old son Jett at the family vacation home in Grand Bahama.

Lightbourne, who was among the medics who treated Jett, allegedly sought $25 million from the actor with the assistance of Bridgewater, who resigned her seat in the Bahamas Senate after she was charged in the case.

Jurors were still deliberating when lawmaker Picewell Forbes told an audience at a Progressive Liberal Party convention that Bridgewater was “a free woman.” He did not go into details.

Immediately afterward, Alex Storr, the party’s deputy chairman-elect, said Forbes had misspoken. He said the information was incorrect and no verdict had been issued. He apologized on behalf of the party.

But the judge said that Forbes’ comment gave her no choice but to dismiss the jurors. She did not set a new trial date.

The jury, which deliberated about nine hours, had spent a month listening to testimony including from Travolta, who flew to the Bahamas to take the stand. Michael Ossi, one of the actor’s attorneys, said his client would cooperate in any way possible and testify again if necessary.

“We are committed to seeing this through, and we are committed to seeing justice served,” Ossi said. “And whatever the prosecution asks us to do is exactly what we will do.”

Howard Butler, a Florida-based lawyer for Travolta, referred further questions to a publicist who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In closing statements, lawyers for the defendants, who denied the allegations, told the nine-member jury that their clients were set up by lawyers for Travolta. They also said authorities misinterpreted their actions.

The alleged plot centered on a document that would have released emergency responders from liability if the family refused an ambulance ride to the hospital for Jett, who suffered a deadly seizure at a family vacation home on Grand Bahama island on Jan. 2.

Travolta said he signed the waiver because he initially wanted his autistic son flown directly to Florida for treatment. But he later changed his mind, and the document did not come into play.

The actor testified that Lightbourne threatened to sell stories to the media suggesting that he was at fault in his son’s death.

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Kelly Preston has remained silent since the unexpected death of her and John Travolta’s son, Jett, in January.
But come October, Preston will be ready to talk.

The actress will attend the California Governor’s Conference for Women, hosted by Maria Shriver, People.com reports.

Preston, 46, plans to discuss the grief she has endured since her 16-year-old son died of a seizure while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas.

“If she can empower one other woman who feels like they can’t get out of bed, or get through the day, whatever the loss, it’ll be worthwhile sharing her story,” Shriver said.

Preston is one of three women on the “Grief & Resilience” panel, which also includes Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Vice President candidate John Edwards, and actress Susan St. James. All three have experienced the loss of a son.

The decision to open up to a crowd of strangers, however, did not come easy to Preston.

“She has been thinking about this for a couple of months,” Shriver said. “I asked her to speak and she knew about the conference and decided if she was only going to speak once, it would be here. She wants the conversation to be about more than just her.”

Shriver believes the panel will help a broad range of women, whether they’re coping with the loss of a child, the loss of a job or the loss of a marriage. Kate Gosselin, another guest on the list, is, of course, familiar with the latter.

“I invited her 4 to 5 months ago before all this other stuff happened,” Shriver said, referring to the recent split between Kate and her husband Jon Gosselin. “My daughters are enamored with her show. They said, ‘Invite her, she has eight kids and the show is so interesting.”

Though Kate may have a new perspective on what it takes to make a family and a marriage successful, Shriver believes she will still be an asset to the conference.

“These are subjects we all experience and no one wants to talk about,” she said.

Among the other prominent women expected to attend the October 26-27 conference in Long Island are Cindy McCain, Alicia Keyes, Madeleine Albright and Annie Leibovitz.

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Weeks after losing his son, John Travolta and his family are now the victims of an extortion bid.

Exact details of the plot have yet to be made public, but the attempt to get money from the Travoltas is connected with the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, according to TMZ.com. The extortionists are reportedly demanding $20 million.

Police in the Bahamas have now launched an investigation, Bahamian Parliament member Obie Wilchcombe has confirmed to Us Weekly.

Today it emerged that two men in the Bahamas, including a local politician from Grand Bahama and another man believed to be connected to the ambulance service, are now being quizzed by local authorities over the allegations.

The Bahamas’ largest Web site, Bahamasb2b.com, reports that one of the paramedics who responded to the emergency call took a picture, using his cell phone, as Jett Travolta lay dying.

The shot is said to show the actor’s son in the back of the ambulance which took him to hospital.

The Bahamian politician reportedly contacted Travolta on behalf of the medical worker, threatening to sell the picture to U.S. celebrity tabloids, such as the National Enquirer, if their multi-million dollar demand is ignored.

News of the investigation comes as Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s government announced a major crackdown on corruption.

It aims to get rid of more than a dozen top-levels cops from the country’s police force. The development is seen as one of the most important nation-building moves in years.

“A number of senior officers were seen today,” Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest told the local press Wednesday.

“They were told that the force was being reorganized and that they weren’t going to be a part of that and that they had an option of voluntarily retiring if they wished. But we intend by the end of this week to reorganize the senior command of the Royal Bahamas Police.”

Wilchcombe, meanwhile, says he was approached about the extortion plot early last week and passed along the information to Travolta’s lawyers.

“The irony was that the Travolta family just sent a letter of gratitude - it happened that afternoon,” said Wilchcombe, referring to a Jan. 12 statement issued by a rep for the family thanking the people of the Bahamas for their support.

“I thought it was a despicable act,” Wilchcombe said. “One person should not destroy the character of the country.”

Jett died of a seizure disorder on Jan. 2, while staying at the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas.

Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston traveled in the ambulance to the hospital and the teenager was pronounced dead at the hospital.

His cause of death after an autopsy was reportedly listed as “seizure,” but the death certificate has never been made public.

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John Travolta, who is mourning the death of his 16-year-old son Jett, has canceled his appearance at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, his rep said.

The actor — whose latest movie, Bolt, is nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for his duet with costar Miley Cyrus (”I Thought I Lost You”) — was scheduled to present.

On Thursday, Travolta and wife Kelly Preston held a memorial service for Jett in their Ocala, Fla., hometown. Lisa Marie Presley, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were among the celeb guests.

Jett died of a seizure disorder Jan. 2 while vacationing with his family in Grand Bahamas.

“John just adored him,” his pal Tom Cruise recently said.

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This small central Florida town is about as far from Hollywood as you can get. Maybe that’s why actor John Travolta moved his family here.

The town square features a fondue restaurant, the social scene revolves around ranchers’ soirees and horse riding is one of the main pastimes. Mobile home parks, peanut farms and moss-covered oak trees dot the landscape. There is little pretension or glitz.

Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston seem to fit in: They appeared on the cover of this month’s Ocala Style magazine with big smiles, wearing jeans and sweaters.

Now, with the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, this is where they have come to grieve. On Monday night - four days after Jett was found unconscious in the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas - Travolta and Preston flew back to Ocala.

The city is welcoming them quietly and respectfully.

Mayor Randy Ewers said the city sent the Travolta family condolences and would give them space and privacy.

“They’re fantastic people, really family oriented,” Ewers said. “We want to respect their privacy as much as possible.”

Doctors in the Bahamas performed an autopsy on Jett on Monday but did not release results. A Bahamas undertaker said the teen’s death certificate had “seizure” as the cause of death. The teen had a history of seizures; his body was cremated Monday and flown to the U.S. the same night.

A memorial service for Jett will be held Thursday for family and close friends in Ocala, his publicist said.

The Travoltas, who have been together since 1991, bought their unusual $8 million property in Ocala in 2003. The reason had nothing to do with the area’s famed thoroughbred horse farms: Travolta, an avid pilot, was looking for a home where he could fly his many planes, including a Boeing 707 airliner, right to his front door.

The estate, located in a subdivision that boasts the largest private residential runway in the country, was featured on the cover of Architectural Digest in 2004. The style was inspired by Morris Lapidus, the architect of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen, designer of Washington Dulles International Airport.

“If I can look out the bedroom and see the planes, I am happy,” Travolta told The Associated Press last year.

His eldest son, Jett, and daughter, Ella, played happily around the mid-century compound.

“We’ve got a big pool, a slide and a golf course,” Preston told Architectural Digest. “We’re a family who likes to play a lot.”

And although that family traveled often for work - Travolta’s latest movie, “Bolt,” in which he does the voice for an animated dog, was just released - they also spent time in Ocala and the even smaller village of Anthony, which is right down the street from their home.

“I love rubbing elbows with life and real people,” Travolta, 54, once told the local newspaper, the Star-Banner. “I don’t like living in ivory towers. I want to enjoy life the way everybody else does.”

“He’s just, I don’t know, a normal person,” said Barbara Pound, a waitress at the Saddle Rack Cafe. She served him his favorite breakfast - a $6.49 western omelet - on a handful of occasions. “Nobody bothers him here. We let him have his peace.”

Travolta once brought his son into the cafe and the boy “wouldn’t stop smiling,” said manager Jackie Gomillion.

Others have spotted Travolta and his family cruising around in his classic Thunderbird or just shopping at the Gap in the local mall. Twice, Travolta hosted charity fundraisers around movie premieres at the local movie theater in Ocala where thousands of local fans showed up.

Brent Johnson of Ocala once saw him at the gym at 5:30 a.m.

“I thought to myself, I’m not going to harass him, but he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’” Johnson said. “He asked about my kids and family. I think there’s a sense of pride here in Ocala that someone like that would want to live here.”

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Grief-stricken John Travolta spoke for the first time Sunday about the sudden death of his 16-year-old son Jett, saying his family is “heartbroken.”

“Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for,” the actor said in a statement. “We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives,” he wrote.

His tribute came as the star opened his family photo album to show touching images with his son - pictures that reflected how deeply Travolta, his wife, Kelly Preston, and Jett’s 8-year-old sister Ella Bleu cared for the teenager.

Travolta’s statement did not comment on a possible cause of death or his son’s medical history.

Lawyer and close friend Michael McDermott revealed that Jett for years had suffered from “frequent and extremely serious” grand mal seizures.

Jett was found on the bathroom floor of the family’s posh condo at the Grand Bahama Resort on Friday. Authorities believe he died of a head injury after suffering a seizure and falling. An autopsy is scheduled for today at Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.

“Each seizure was like a death,” McDermott told celebrity Web site TMZ.com. Jett lost consciousness and went into convulsions about four days a week when he was unmedicated, he said.

Jett took Depakote, an anti-seizure and mood-stabilizing medication, for several years until it apparently lost its effectiveness. The Travoltas had also become concerned about the drug’s possible side effects, which include liver damage, McDermott said, and took him off Depakote some time ago.

There has long been speculation that Jett suffered from autism, but the Travoltas have maintained his health problems were a result of Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory ailment affecting the blood vessels that most often occurs in early childhood.

Advocates for autistic kids, including other Hollywood stars, have accused Travolta, a Scientologist, of denying his son’s condition because it would have required Jett to see a psychiatrist, which his religion forbids.

Jett was under 24-hour supervision and audited with a baby monitor, McDermott said. There were chimes on his bathroom door at the condo to alert his nannies when he woke up in the night.

Doctors say that 30% of adolescents with autism also suffer from epilepsy - the clinical name for frequent seizures - and that parents need to be aware of the risks.

“It’s very important for people to know that if you have a child with autism that the child is at higher risk for seizures, and you need to monitor it closely,” said Dr. Geri Dawson, chief scientist at Autism Speaks, a research and advocacy organization. Dawson cited a recent study that showed death among autistic teens is double that of others their age because of seizures.

Dr. Isabelle Rapin, an autism and epilepsy expert at Albert Einstein Medical Center in the Bronx, said Depakote is very useful for seizures. Its most common side effects are weight gain and drowsiness. Liver damage is rare, she said.

Meanwhile, the Travoltas and Bahamian police were at odds over when exactly Jett died. The Travolta camp maintains that Jett suffered the fatal fall Friday morning, before his nanny, Jeff Kathrein, found him on the floor, but investigators say it happened the night before.

“The police left the impression that the boy was unsupervised,” said McDermott. “There were two nannies with him for the entire evening.
“They made it seem like he was sent to the condo and nobody checked in on him until the next morning,” he said.

Police officials stood by their time line Sunday, telling TMZ.com the Travoltas were too traumatized to understand the truth.

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John Travolta said Saturday he and his wife Kelly Preston are “heartbroken” over the death of their chronically ill 16-year-old son, who collapsed at the family’s vacation home on Grand Bahama.

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning and he was later pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday, according to Rahming’s police statement.

“We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives,” Travolta and Preston said in their first public statement since Jett’s death.

“Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered,” said a statement posted Sunday on Travolta’s Web site.

“We have received many messages of condolence from around the world and we want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. It has meant so much to us. It is a beautiful reminder of the inherent goodness in the human spirit that gives us hope for a brighter future.”

Preston and Travolta have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome, an illness that leads to inflamed blood vessels in young children. Preston blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine. Others said Jett was prone to seizures.

Michael McDermott, an attorney for the actor, said Sunday that although Jett was last seen Thursday and found the following day, he doesn’t believe that the teen was in the bathroom for a substantial amount of time.

“The police left the impression that the boy was unsupervised. No. There were two nannies with him for the entire evening,” McDermott told The Associated Press. “They made it seem like he was sent to the condo and nobody checked in on him until the next morning.”

“(Jett) was spectacularly supervised,” said McDermott, who said he has not had the chance to talk to the two nannies himself.

McDermott said he had no knowledge of Jett’s medical history but “understood he had a history of seizures.” It is unclear whether Jett was taking medication for that.

The Bahamas’ health minister, Dr. Hubert Minnis, has said that a second, U.S.-certified pathologist will fly in at dawn Monday to assist with the teenager’s autopsy.

“I have spoken to (Travolta) and informed him that the government is doing everything it can,” Minnis said Sunday, adding he could not disclose further specifics about the autopsy.

About a dozen security guards and Bahamian police officers patrolled Sunday around the luxury Old Bahama Bay resort community where Travolta and Preston remained inside their home. The white-sand beach in front of the suites was closed.

The couple also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.

Travolta, 54, is trying to finish funeral arrangements and hopes to fly his son’s body to Florida by midweek, McDermott said. Travolta and Preston, 46, have a house in Ocala, Florida.

The Church of Scientology, established in 1945 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has attracted numerous celebrity followers, and among its more famed members is Travolta, who has long been one of Hollywood’s biggest names.

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