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Judge declares mistrial in Travolta extortion case, cites possible jury misconduct (video)
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John Travolta will have to go back to the Bahamas for a retrial in the $25 million extortion case. (AP Photo)
A Bahamian judge declared a mistrial in the John Travolta extortion case after a local politician announced on live television that the defendants had been acquitted -- but the jury was still deliberating.
Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen immediatedly ordered a retrial on grounds of possible jury misconduct and expressed concerns that there may have been premature communication from the jury room, according to a Reuters report. She told the jury:
We are very concerned in the interest of justice that it does not appear that there has been a communication from the jury room. Justice must not only be done, but seen to be done.
I am very, very reluctant to discharge you, but in the interest of justice, having heard the views of counsel, we are concerned. It leaves the impression that there may have been a communication from the jury room. I am not going to ask if there was or not."
Picewell Forbes, a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) member of parliament, shouted that party member Pleasant Bridgewater, one of the defendants accused of trying to bilk Travolta out of $25 million, had been acquitted. He shouted:
Pleasant Bridgewater is a free woman, PLPs! God is good, PLPs! Pleasant is a free woman!
And then the convention busted an impromptu move as "Oh Happy Day" blared over the loudspeakers.
Party officials have issued an apology and said simply that Forbes "misspoke."
Now Travolta will have to go back to the Bahamas and testify again. Michael Ossi, one of his attorneys said:
We are committed to seeing this through. ... Whatever the prosecution asks us to do is exactly what we will do."
And the nightmare continues.
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